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LIBRARY OF COr^GRESS. 



Shelf -Cil.-^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MERRILL'S 

ENGLISH HISTORY 

FOR SCHOOL AND HOME USE 



BY 



GEORGE CURRY 

Late Master of tJte Charterhouse School^ London 



EDITED BY 



WILLIAM J^ROLFE, Litt.D. 

J^oy-tnerlv Head Master of the High School^ Cajubridge^ Mass. 



NEW YORK ^ ^ . . 

CHARLES E. MERRILL & CO. ^ ^ ^ 



7 



52 AND 54 Lafayette Place 

\ - 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT 



Our atttention having been called to Dr/ Curry's 
Manual of English History by prominent educators 
in this country who have recognized its merit and 
proved its superiority as a text-book by use in the 
school room, we have purchased the right to publish 
a revised and enlarged edition in this country. The 
book has had a phenomenally successful sale in Eng- 
land, and in its revised and more attractive setting 
we anticipate for it equal or greater success in 
America. 



0^71-, 



Copyright by Charles E. Merrill & Co., 1892 



PREFACE 



^ At the request of the publishers, I have undertaken 

to revise this excellent little book for use in this 

^ country. I fully agree with them in the opinion that 

^ it is likely to be of service both as a text-book for 

young pupils and as " supplementary reading, " either 

. in school or at home. 

In the original work, which was written exclu- 
sively for juvenile Britons, there were many expres- 
sions and some allusions that would be inappropriate 
and occasionally unintelligible — at least, for children 
— on this side of the ocean. These have been modi- 
fied or omitted, and sundry other verbal cnangesthat 
seemed to me advisable have been made. These al- 
terations, though for the most part very slight, occur 
on nearly every page. I have found few errors in 
the statement of historical facts to correct; but here 
and there I have thought it well to add a paragraph 
or two to the text. The last chapter has also been 
brought down to the present time. 

W. J. R. 
Cambridge, March 28, 1892 



Table of tlie Kings and Queens of England 





Saxon Kings 








Began to Reign 


Ceased to Reign 






A.D. 


A.D. 


Egbert, 'first Kins; of the English, 


827 


837 


Ethelwulf, 


> • . 


837 


858 


Ethelbald, { 




J858 


860 


Ethelbert, ^ ' 


• 


^858 


866 


Ethelred I. , . 


• • • • 


866 


871 


Alfred the Great, 


• 


871 


901 


Edward I. , surnamed the Elder, . 


goi 


925 


Athelstan, 




925 


940 


Edmund I., 




940 


946 


Edred, . 




946. 


955 


Edwy, 




955 


958 


Edgar, . 




958- 


975 


Edward II., surnamed the Mart^^r, 


975 


979 


Ethelred II., . 


• ■ • • 


979 


1016 


Edmund II. , or 


Ironside, reigns 






seven months 


wuth Canute, the 






Dane, . 


. 


1016 


1016 




Danish Kings 




Canute, . 


. 


1016 


1035 


Harold I. , 


• • • • 


1035 


1040 


Hardi Canute, . 


. 


1040 


1042 




Saxon Line Restored 




Edward III., surnamed the Con- 






fessor, . 


. 


1042 


1066 



Harold II. The last Saxon King ; 
he reigns nine months, . . 1066 

Norman Kings 

William I., called the Conqueror, . 1066 

William II., surnamed Rufus, . 1087 

Henry I., ..... iioo 

Stephen, 1135 

Plantagenet Kings 

Henry II., . . . . .1154 
Richard I. , surnamed Coeur de 
Lion, ...... 

John, 

Henry HI. ...... 



1066 
1087 

IIOO 

1135 
1154 

11S9 



II89 


II99 


II99 


I2I6 


I2I6 


1272 



KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND 



Began to Reign Ceased to Reign 



Edward I., 
Edward 11. , 
Edward IIL 
Richard XL. 



Henry IV. 
Henry V. , 
Henry VI. 



House of Lancaster 



A.D. 


A.D 


1272 


1307 


1307 


1327 


1327 


1377 


1377 


1399 


TER 
1399 


1413 


I413 


1422 


1422 


1461 



House of York 

Edward IV. > ..... 1461 
Edward V. He was called King 



1483 



from April 9th to 
Richard HI., 


June 24th, . 1483 
1483 

Tudor Kings 


1483 
1485 


Henry VII. , . 
Henry VIII. , . 
Edward VI. , . 
Mary I., 
Elizabeth. 


1485 
1509 
1547 
1553 
1558 

Stuart Kings 


1509 

1547 
1553 
1558 
1603 


James I., 
Charles I., 


1603 
1625 


1625 
1649 



The Commonwealth from 1649 to 1660 

Oliver Cromwell, Protector, from December, 1653, to Sep- 
tember, 1658. 

Richard Cromwell, Protector, from September, 1658, to May, 
1659. 

Stuart Kings Restored 



Charles H., 


. ■ . . 


1660 


1685 


James II., 


. • . . 


1685 


1688 


William HI. 


1 ■ • • 






Mary II., 


1689 


1694 


William HI. 


alone, 


1694 


1702 


Anne, 


. 


1702 


1714 




House of 


Brunswick 




George I., 




1714 


1727 


George II., 




1727 


1760 


George HI., 




1760 


1820 


George IV., 




1820 


1830 


William IV. 




1830 


1837 


Victoria, 




1837 





21 



CONTENTS 



I. — Ancient Britain, 13 

II. — Britain conquered by the Romans — Christians 

in Britain, . . . . . . -15 

III. — The Picts and Scots — Britain conquered by the 

Saxons, . . . . . . . . iS 

IV. — The Saxons become Christians, . . . .20 

V. — Egbert, first King of the English — England in- 
vaded by the Danes — Alfred the Deliverer, . 23 

VI.— Reign of Alfred, 25 

VII.— Edward the Elder— Athelstan— Battle of Bru- 
nanburg — Edgar — Ethelred the Unready — 
England conquered by Sweyn the Dane, . 2S 
VIII. — Canute — Edward the Confessor, . . .30 

IX. — Harold — William of Normandy, . . -33 

X. — England invaded by William of Normandy, and 
by the King of Nor^vay — Defeat of the Nor- 
wegians — Battle of Hastings, . . . • 35 
XI. — Reign of William the First, . . . -37 

XII. — Reign of William the Second, and of Henry the 

First, 41 

XIII. — Stephen — Civil War — Henry the Second — 

Thomas a Becket, ...... 44 

XIV. — Wars between Henry the Second and his Sons 

— Conquest of Ireland, . . . . -47 

XV. — Richard Coeur de Lion, 48 

XVI. — Reign of John — Magna Charta, . . . .52 

XVII.— Reign of Henry the Third, . . . .54 

XVIII. — Edward the First — Conquest of Wales — Queen 

Eleanora, ........ 56 

XIX.— Wars of Edward the First with Scotland— His 
Death — The Counties and Borough Towns 
begin to elect Members to Parliament, . . 59 
XX. — Edward the Second — Battle of Bannockburn — 
Edward the Third — Queen Philippa, and the 
Black Prince — Battle of Crecy, . . .64 

XXL— Battle of Poitiers— Great Deeds of the Black 
Prince — His Death — Death of Edward the 

Third 6S 

XXII. — Some Memorable Events and Great Men of 

the time of Edward the Third, . . • 7° 

XXIIL— Reign of Richa^v. the Second, . . . .72 



CONTENTS 



XXIV. — Henry the Fourth — Prince Henry and Judge 
Gascoyne — Sautre, the Martyr — Henry the 
Fifth — Victory at Agincourt, . , .7*5 
XXV. — Henry the Sixth — War with France — Joan of 

Arc, . . 7S 

XXVI. — War of the Roses — Dethronement of Henry 

the Sixth, . . ^ . . . , .81 
XXVII. — Edward the Fourth — Warwick, the King- 
maker — Battle of Barnet — Battle of Tewkes- 
bury — Death of Henry the Sixth — Cruelty 
of Edward the Fourth — His Death, . . 83 
XXVIII.— Edward the Fifth — Richard the Third- 
Henry Tudor — Battle of Bosworth — Prog- 
ress of the Nation under the Plantagenet 
Kings — The first English Printer, . . 86 
XXIX. — Henry the Seventh — Lambert Simnel — Per- 

kin Warbeck, ...... go 

XXX. — Conclusion of the Reign of Henry the 
Seventh — Decay of the Feudal System — 
Court of the Star Chamber — Study of the 
Greek Language — First Voyage of English- 
men to America, ...... 94 

XXXI.— Henry the Eighth— Battle of Flodden— Field 

of the Cloth of Gold, 97 

XXXII.— The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth, . . 100 
XXXIII. — The Reformation — The Scriptures printed for 
the first time in English — Suppression of 
the Monasteries, ...... 104 

XXXIV.— Cardinal Wolsey— Sir Thomas More— Cruelty 
of the King — His Death — Creation of a 
Navy by Henry the Eighth, . . . 108 
XXXV.— Edward the Sixth— War with Scotland— Ref- 
ormation in the English Church, . .114 
XXXVI. — The King's Sisters — Schools and Hospitals 
founded by Edward the Sixth — Voyage of 
Discovery to the North- East — Lady Jane 
Grey — Death of Edward, . . . .116 

XXXVII.— Lady Jane Grey Queen— Mary the First— Ex- 
ecution of Lady Jane and her Husband — 
The Roman Catholic Worship restored in 
the Churches — The Marriage of the Queen 
— Rebellion of Wyatt — Imprisonment of the 
Princess Elizabeth, . . . . .120 

XXXVIII.— The Authority of the Pope re-established in 
England — Loss of Calais — Death of Mary 

the First, 124 

XXXIX.— Queen Elizabeth— Her Ministers of State- 
Protestantism established in England — 
Queen Elizabeth's Navy — New Coinage, . 126 



CONTENTS 



XL. — Some of the Chief Men of Queen Elizabeth's 
time — Drake — Raleigh — Sir Philip Sidney- 
Earl of Leicester — Earl of Essex, . .129 
XLL — Enmity of the French and Spaniards to Eng- 
land — Assistance given by Elizabeth to the 
foreign Protestants — Mary, Queen of Scots, 134 
XLII. — Murder of Rizzio, and of Darnley — Depo- 
sition of the Queen of Scots — She flies to 
England, and is imprisoned there, . .137 
XLIII. — Plots in favor of the Queen of Scots — Her Ex- 
ecution, ....... 141 

XLIV. — The Spanish Armada, ..... 144 

XLV. — Final attempts of Philip the Second to Con- 
quer England — Rebellions in Ireland — 
Death of Essex — Death of the Queen — Pop- 
ularity of Elizabeth, . . . . .148 

XLVI. — State of England in Queen Elizabeth's time 
— The City of London — Mines and Manu- 
factories — Great Writeirs — East India Com- 
pany — Sir Thomas Gresham — Foibles of the 
Queen — Her great power in Church and 
State, . . . . . . . .152 

XLVII. — The Crown of England passes to the Scottish 
Royal Family of Stuart — James the First — 
State of Scotland — The English Puritans, 
and Roman Catholics — The Hampton Court 
Conference — New English Version of the 
Bible — The Gunpowder Plot, . . .156 
XL VIII. — Character of James the First — His Children, 
Prince Henry ; Charles ; Elizabeth, Queen 
of Bohemia, . . . . . -159 

XLIX. — Villiers, Duke of Buckingham — Journey of 
Prince Charles to Spain — War — Death of 
James the First — Sir Walter Raleigh, . 163 

L. — Disputes in the Church and State which end 

in a Civil War, ...... 166 

LI. — Charles the First — His Character — His Dis- 
putes with the Parliament — Petition of 
Right — Murder of Buckingham, . .169 

LII. — Strafford and Laud — Courts of Star Cham- 
ber and High Commission — Ship Money — 
Revolt in Scotland — The Covenant, . .172 
LIII. — The Long Parliament — Death of Strafford, 

and of Laud, . . . . . .176 

LIV, — The Irish Rebellion — Beginning of the Civil 
War— Battle of Edge-Hill— Oliver Crom- 
well, . .179 

LV. — Tyrannical Government of the Parliament, 
and the Puritans — Battle of Naseby — King 



lO CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Charles takes refuge with the Scots, and is 
given up by them to the Parliament — Impris- 
onment of the King, 184 

LVI. — Trial and Execution of King Charles — His 

Children, 189 

LVII. — The Commonwealth — Cromwell subdues Ireland 
— Charles the Second proclaimed King in Scot- 
land — The Scots overthrown at Dunbar, and 
at Worcester — Narrow Escape of Charles — 
Complete Subjection of Scotland, and of Ire- 
land — Cromwell and the Parliament — He is 
Enthroned as Protector of the Commonwealth, 193 
LVIII. — Despotic Government of Cromwell — Gloom of 
the Puritans — Glorious Exploits and Death of 
Blake — Death of Cromwell — Richard Cromwell 
proclaimed Protector — He resigns his office, . 198 

LIX. — The Army attempt to govern — General Monk — 
Charles the Second recalled — Joy of the Nation 

— Character of the King, 201 

LX. — The English Church restored — The Nonconform- 
ists — War with Holland — The Great Plague — 
The Fire of London, 205 

LXI.— Dutch Fleet in the Thames— Banishment of 
Clarendon— The Cabal— The Duke of York a 
Romanist — The Test Act, . . . .209 

LXII. — Louis the Fourteenth, King of France — Spain — 

Holland — The Prince of Orange, . . . 213 
LXIIL— Titus Gates— Rye-House Plot— Lord W. Rus- 
sell — Death of Charles the Second — Troubles 
in Scotland — Ireland — Foreign Settlements — 
Sir Isaac Newton — John Milton — Divines of 
the Seventeenth Century — Post- Office estab- 
lished — The Habeas Corpus Act — First Stand- 
ing Army — First Copper Coinage, . . .216 
LXIV. — James the Second — The King endeavors to pro- 
mote Catholicism — Monmouth's Rebellion — 
Judge Jefferies — Bishop Ken — Barbarous Exe- 
cution of Alice Lisle and Elizabeth Gaunt, . 223 

LXV. — King James annuls the Laws against Catholicism 
— And persecutes the English Church — Trial 
of the Seven Bishops — Joy of the Nation at 
their Acquittal, . , . . . .229 
LXVL- A Son is born to the King — The Prince of 
Orange comes to England — James deserted by 
his chief officers, and by his daughter Anne — 
Flight of the King — Interregnum — The Crown 
is offered to the Prince and Princess of Orange 
— The Bill of Rights — Completion of the Eng- 
lish Revolution, 233 



CONTENTS II 



LXVII.— William the Third, and Mary the Second— Char- 
acter of Mary, and of William — Affairs of 
Scotland, from the death of Charles the Second ^ 
to the Battle of Killiecrankie — Affairs of Ire- 
land — Siege of Derry — Battle of the Boyne, . 240 
LXVIII.— Battle of Beachy Head— Conclusion of the War 
in Ireland — Victory of La Hogue — Death of 
Queen Mary — Greenwich Hospital — The Na- 
tional Debt — The Peace of Ryswick — Death 
of William the Third — Whigs and Tories — 
Glencoe, ........ 246 

LXIX. — Queen Anne — Settlement of the Crown on the 
House of Brunswick — The Marlboroughs — 
Blenheim — Treaty of Utrecht — Capture of 
Gibraltar — Union of Scotland and England 
— Death of Queen Anne — "Queen Anne's 
Bounty "—The Non- Jurors— The first Mis- 
sionary Societies of England founded — Im- 
provement of Manufactures, .... 252 
LXX. — George the First — Insurrection in Favor of the 
Pretender, James Stuart — Death of George 
the First. . . . . . . -257 

LXXI. — George the Second — Dettingen and Fontenoy 
— Charles Edward Stuart, and the Rebellion 

of i745> 259 

LXXII. — French and English Colonies in North America 
—War— William Pitt— General Wolfe— Battle 
of Quebec — Conquest of Canada, . . . 263 
LXXIII. — Acquisitions of the English in India — Clive — 
The Sepoys — The Mogul Empire — English 
and French Settlements in India — Surajah 
Dowlah — The Black Hole — Battle of Plassy, 265 
LXXIV. — Naval Victories — Anson — Death of George the 
Second — General Corruption of Morals— The 
Methodists — Change of Style — Canals first 
constructed in England — Travelling in the 
time of George the Second, . . . .272 

LXXV.— George the Third— The Seven Years' War- 
England attempts to tax the American Colo- 
nies — War with the Colonists, and with 
France, Spain, and Holland — Death of Chat- 
ham — The Defence of Gibraltar — The Colo- 
nies given up by England, . . . ,276 

LXXVI. — Domestic Habits and Character of George 
the Third — Great Improvements m Machin- 
ery and Manufactures — Voyages of Discov- 
ery : Captain Cook — John Howard — Slave 
Trade : Wilberforce and Clarkson — War in 
India, 282 



12 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

LXXVII. — The French Revolution — Napoleon Bona- 
parte — Arthur Wellesley — Wellesley in 
India : Battle of Assaye, .... 286 

LXXVIII. — War with France — Unsuccessful Expeditions 
to Holland — Naval Conquests and Vic- 
tories — Admiral Nelson — The Irish Rebel- 
lion of 1798 — The French in Egypt — Victory 
of Aboukir Bay — Bonaparte quits Egypt — 
The French Army in Egypt capitulates — 
Bonaparte raises himself to supreme power 
in France — His Animosity to the English, 291 
LXXIX. — Bonaparte threatens to invade England — 
Battle of Trafalgar, and Death of Nelson — 
Death of Pitt, and of Fox, .... 295 
LXXX. — The Peninsular War — Battle of Corunna, and 
Death of Sir John Moore — Victory of Sala- 
manca — Wellington enters Madrid — Victory 
of Vittoria — Wellington enters France — 
Victory of Toulouse, and end of the Penin- 
sular War — Bonaparte's Russian Campaign 
— He abdicates the Empire of France, . 297 
LXXXI. — The Allied Sovereigns visit England — ISona- 
parte returns to France, and -resumes the 
Crown — His final overthrow at Waterloo — 
His imprisonment at St. Helena — Union of 
Ireland with Great Britain — The last days 
of George the Third, ..... 304 
LXXXII. — George Prince Regent — His Marriage — 
Death of the Princess Charlotte — War with 
the United States — Bombardment of Al- 
giers — George the Fourth King — Repeal of 
the Test and Corporation Acts, and Re- 
moval of the Roman Catholic Disabilities 
— Death of George the Fourth — Improve- 
ments in London — Introduction of Naviga- 
tion by Steam, ...... 309 

LXXXIII.— William the Fourth— The Reform Bill— Aboli- 
tion of Slavery in all the British Colonies — 
Introduction of Railway Travelling — Death 
of William the Fourth — Accession of Queen 
Victoria — Her Marriage — Wars in India — 
The Great Exhibition — Death of the Duke 
of Wellington — War with Russia — Fall of 
Sebastopol — Peace concluded — Sepoy Mu- 
tiny — Death of Prince Albert — The Civil 
War in the United States, and the Ala- 
bama Damages — African Wars — Reform 
Bills — Education Act — Irish Land Acts — 
Queen Victoria's Jubilee 312 



ENGLISH HISTORY 



CHAPTER I 

Ancient Britain 
(55 B.C.) 

The British Isles do not make much show on the 
map of Europe, and on a map of the world they are 
little more than specks ; but they have had a large 
and important place in the history of Europe and the 
world. Besides, England is our mother country, the 
home of our forefathers; and on that account we 
ought to know something of its history. We shall 
try here to tell the chief events of this history in 
simple and familiar language for young readers and 
students at home and in school. 

Many hundred years ago the Island of Great Britain 
was full of forests, and there were vast herds of deer 
and cattle living in the woods, together with hares 
and foxes, bears, wolves, and wild boars. 

Here and there, amid the thick trees, there were 
clusters of huts, made of rough logs or of basket- 
work, plastered over with mud ; these were the vil- 
lages and towns. In all the more open spots, on the 
heaths and moors, and the green downs which sloped 
to the sea, there were thousands of sheep feeding ; 
and the people lived by hunting or upon the milk 



14 Merrill's ENGLISH history 

and flesh of their flocks. Some were fishermen ; and 
their little boats, made of wickerwork covered with 
skins, floated lightly upon the lakes and rivers. But 
there were neither orchards nor gardens, and no- 
where, except in the southeast of the island, was 
there any grain to be seen growing. 

The people who lived in that part of Britain knew 
more about the arts and comforts of life than the rest 
of the islanders. They built better houses, they 
sowed and reaped, dug pits in the ground in which 
to store up their harvests, and made the wool of 
their sheep into warm, thick garments. The other 
Britons covered themselves with skins, or were con- 
tented to go without clothing, only painting their 
bodies blue with the juice of woad (a plant which 
grew in the woods) ; and by way of ornament they 
tattooed themselves with strange figures, as the na- 
tives of some savage countries do at this day. 

Quite in the southwest of Britain, the people 
worked in the mines, and merchants from far 
countries came to the Land's End, bringing with 
them salt and potter's ware, that they might get in 
exchange the tin of Cornwall. 

The natives of Britain were divided into a number 
of different tribes, and were often at war with one 
another. Each tribe had its chief ; but the priests 
(who were called Druids) had more power than the 
chiefs and were much feared and reverenced by the 
people. The Druids taught some true and useful 
things, mixed with others that were false and mis- 
chievous. They knew how to cure several diseases 
by means of the plants which grew in the woods; 
and they understood how to make arms and tools of 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 5 

wood, iron, and copper. They made laws for the 
people; and some of the Druids composed verses 
about the chief things which had happened in Brit- 
ain, and about the sun and moon and stars, and sang 
them to the music of their harps. 

The great circles of stones, which are still in 
part standing at Stonehenge and other places, were 
formerly believed to be the remains of Druid tem- 
ples; but this is now regarded as very improbable. 
In general, the priests lived in the deep retirement 
of the forests. There they offered up their prayers, 
under the shade of the oaks, which were accounted 
sacred trees. 

If any mistletoe was found growing on an oak tree, 
a solemn feast was held. The chief Druid, clothed 
in his long white robes, ascended the tree in sight 
of all the people, and cut off the mistletoe with a 
golden sickle. It was kept with care, as a most pre- 
cious medicine ; and then white bulls were sacrificed, 
and there was great rejoicing. But some of the cus- 
toms ascribed to the Druids were frightfully crueL 
Some ancient writers say that they offered up human 
beings in sacrifice, and that sometimes a number of 
living men were all burned together, while the loud 
songs of the priests drowned the cries and shrieks of 
the sufferers. 



CHAPTER II 

Britain Conquered by the Romans — Christians in Britain 
(From 55 B.C. to 350 a.d.) 

The most powerful people in the world at that 
time were the Romans. They had conquered nearly 
all the nations of the west and middle of Europe ; 



l6 MERRILL S, ENGLISH HISTORY 

and in the year 55 b.c. one of their generals, named 
Jnlius Csesar, attacked Britain. But he did not 
meet with much success; and it was not till the 
year 43 a.d. (nearly one hundred years after Caesar's 
time) that the Romans really set about conquering 
Britain. It cost them a great deal of hard fighting, 
for the Britons were brave and loved their country ; 
but the Roman soldiers were brave too, and they 
were much better armed than the Britons. Be- 
sides this, the Romans were well disciplined and 
accustomed to obey their generals, while the Britons 
went to battle like a wild, disorderly multitude. 

The tribes in the mountainous regions of Wales 
held out long against the invaders. One of the most 
famous leaders in the struggle was Caractacus, who 
became the head of a very warlike people called the 
Silures, or Silurians. He had taken refuge among 
them after being defeated in the east of Britain by 
the Romans ; and it was only after a long and bloody 
war that he was beaten again, taken captive, and 
sent to Rome. There he with his family and many 
of his fellow- warriors were led in a triumphal pro- 
cession through the city. His companions were 
overcome with shame and walked with downcast 
looks, but Caractacus kept his head erect and bore 
'himself with a proud and haughty air. When he 
came into the presence of the emperor, he disdained 
to sue for mercy as the other captives humbly did ; 
and the emperor was struck with such admiration 
that he ordered his chains to be taken off and set 
him at liberty. 

Boadicea was queen of a tribe on the eastern coast 
of Britain, who resisted the oppression of the Romans. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 17 

As a punishment she was publicly flogged, and her 
two daughters were subjected to the vilest outrage. 
Boadicea, frantic with rage, called upon the Britons 
of the east and south to rise against the foreign ty- 
rants. An immense army answered to the call, and 
won several victories over the Romans. At last 
Boadicea was defeated in a great battle, and eighty 
thousand of the Britons are said to have been slain. 
The. unhappy queen was overwhelmed with de- 
spair, and killed herself by taking poison. 

When the Romans had finally subdued all the 
south of the island, they advanced into the northern 
part, now Scotland, but called Caledonia by the 
Romans. They did not succeed so well there, for 
they could not conquer the tribes who lived in the 
mountains, and the Roman soldiers did not find 
much food or shelter in a country full of barren 
moors, rocks, and morasses. 

In Britain the Romans worked a great change. 
They drained marshes, cut down woods, and laid out 
the land in orchards and grain-fields. They built 
beautiful houses and temples, and raised strong walls 
and towers to defend their towns. Dover and some 
other harbors in Kent were very important places in 
the Roman times ; so were London, York, and Lin- 
coln. Their chief towns were connected by excel- 
lent roads. 

The Britons were forced to help in these works, 
and by degrees they learned to build good houses 
for themselves, to cultivate their land, and to raise 
vegetables and fruits, instead of being contented 
with acorns and berries which grew wild in the 
woods. The young Britons were taught to live and 



l8 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

dress like the Roman boys, and went to school with 
them ; and many were trained up to be soldiers, and 
went to distant countries to fight for the emperors 
of Rome. 

One great good — the greatest of all — came to the 
Britons through the Roman conquest : the knowledge 
of Christianity. When the Romans came to Britain 
they were heathen worshipping many gods ; but the 
Gospel had been preached in Rome, and its glad 
tidings soon went forth into every land which Rome 
had conquered. At first the Christians were perse- 
cuted; and in 304 many Britons were martyred. 
But afterward the worship of God was permitted, 
and the Church of Britain grew and flourished. 



CHAPTER III 

The Picts and Scots — Britain Conquered by the Saxons 
(From 350 to 590 a.d.) 

It was not all peace in Britain under the Roman 
government, for the fierce tribes of Caledonia (Scot- 
land) took every opportunity of attacking the north- 
ern borders. For a long time they were driven back 
by the Roman troops, who built strong walls and for- 
tifications all across the island from the Solway Firth 
to the Tyne, to keep them from coming into Britain. 
But the Roman empire was growing weak ; it was at- 
tacked in Spain and France and Italy by hordes of 
barbarians from the north and east of Europe. Even 
the great and ancient city of Rome was unable to 
save itself from their fury ; and the emperor could 
no longer spare troops to take care of Britain. 

In 410 he wrote to all the chief towns in the island, 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY T9 

and told the Britons that they were their own mas- 
ters now, and must take care of themselves. Perhaps 
they would have done so if they had been able to 
agree together ; but the people of one city were per- 
petually quarrelling with those of another, and they 
were all sorely punished for their want of union. 

The northern tribes (who were now called Picts 
and Scots) set at naught all the walls and defences 
which the Romans had raised, and poured into Brit- 
ain in such numbers that the people were quite dis- 
heartened. Instead of joining together to defend 
their country, they called in a band of foreigners to 
fight for them. These new allies were Saxons, who 
dwelt on the shores of the Baltic and near the mouth 
of the Elbe ; and they were as fiercely brave as the 
Picts and Scots themselves. 

The Saxons had been in the habit of landing on 
the south and east coasts of Britain, and carrying off 
all the goods and cattle they could lay hands on ; and 
if any of the people fell into their power, they were 
put to death or sold for slaves. But now the Britons 
made friends with a band of Saxons, and promised 
them large pay and the Isle of Thanet for their 
home, if they would drive the Picts and Scots out of 
Britain. The Saxons were quite ready to do this; 
but they determined that they would gain all Britain 
for themselves, and not the little Isle of Thanet 
merely. So, year after year, bands of Saxons landed 
in the country, and fought fiercely with the Britons 
as well as with the Picts and Scots. At last, after 
long fighting, the Britons were forced to give way. 
They had one famous chief, named Arthur, who per- 
formed many wonderful deeds in defence of his 



20 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

country; but even Arthur was not strong- enough to 
drive out the Saxons, and there was no chief like 
him to fill his place when he died. 

By the year 590 the Saxons had mastered all the 
land from the Firth of Forth to the English Channel, 
and from the Severn to the North Sea. But in the 
west the Britons found shelter and safety among the 
rocks of Cornwall and the mountains of Wales and 
Cumberland. In these districts they long remained 
a separate people, and attacked the Saxons whenever 
they could. Most of the people in Wales still speak 
the ancient. British language, and those of Cornwall 
did so during several hundred years. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Saxons become Christians 
(From 590 to 800 a.d.) 

The Saxons were divided into different tribes ; but 
one tribe, called the Angles, gave its name to the 
whole country. England means Angle-land, and the 
people of England are often called Anglo-Saxons. 

All the towns which the Romans had built in 
Britain had been ruined in the long war between 
the Britons and vSaxons; and the British churches 
had been destroyed or turned into heathen temples, 
where the Saxons worshipped many gods, the chief 
of whom were Odin, or Woden, and Thor. They 
thought that these gods delighted in war, and that 
they would show no favor to men who lived and died 
quietly at home. This made every Saxon warrior 
hope to die in battle, that he might go to the para- 
dise of Odin ; there, he believed, the days would be 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 21 

spent in hunting and fighting, and the nights in 
feasting and drinking. 

We have a memorial of those heathen times in the 
names which the Saxons gave to the days of the 
week. Sunday and Monday were the days of the 
Sun and Moon ; Tuesday, the day of the god Tiw ; 
then came Woden's day, Thor's day, Friga's day, 
or Friday, and the day of Satern, or Saturday. 

Christian worship was now confined to Wales and 
the other mountain districts in which the Britons 
had taken refuge. During the long war which had 
raged between the Britons and the Saxons, it does 
not appear that the Church of Britain had made any 
attempt to convert its Pagan invaders to the faith of 
Christ ; and the Saxons, who believed that their god 
Woden had given them the victory, despised the re- 
ligion of the people whom they had conquered. But 
the time had come when the Christian religion was 
once more to be preached in all the land. 

It was in the year 597 that the first missionaries to 
the Saxons landed in Britain. They were sent by 
Pope Gregory the Great. Before he became Pope 
his pity had been moved by the sight of some Saxon 
children, sold for slaves in the market-place of Rome. 
"Who are these beautiful boys?" asked Gregory; 
"and are they Christian children?" "No," said the 
slave-merchant ; " they are Angles, and come from a 
heathen land." Gregory was grieved, and answered, 
" If they were Christians, they would be angels, not 
Angles." * And from that day he was resolved that, 
if possible, the gospel should be preached to the 
heathen who dwelt in Britain. 

* In the Latin which he spoke, " Non Angli sed Angeli." 



22 Merrill's English history 

He made choice of forty missionaries, and placed 
at their head a priest named Augustine. They 
landed in Kent first, because Ethelbert, the King of 
Kent, had married a French princess who was a 
Christian, though he worshipped Odin himself. 
When he heard that missionaries had landed in his 
country, he sent a messenger to them and fixed a day 
on which he would hear what they had to say. 
When the day came, the king went out of the city 
with his soldiers and chief men, and seated himself 
on the groimd; and presently Augustine came up 
with all his companions, who were chanting a solemn 
litany as they walked along. Augustine spoke first, 
and told the king what he wished to teach the people. 
Ethelbert made answer that he would give the mis- 
sionaries a house to live in and everything that was 
necessary, and they might persuade his subjects to 
be Christians if they could ; but for himself, he said, 
he could not receive these strange doctrines and for- 
sake the gods of his fathers. Yet Ethelbert was 
himself one of the very first converts. 

He was baptized on Whit Sunday, 597, not many 
weeks after the landing of the missionaries. The 
people liked to do what the king did, and on the fol- 
lowing Christmas day a crowd of ten thousand came 
together and received baptism. After this, the Gos- 
pel was preached in other parts of England, and by 
degrees the people gave up their false gods. But it 
was a long time — more than eighty years — before all 
the country could be called Christian, and even then 
not many of the people gave up their love of war and 
fighting, so that there was little peace in England. 

The Christian teachers did a great deal of good in 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 23 

the places where they settled. In general they built 
a monastery, in which several of them could live 
together. Some cultivated the land, and there were 
no grain-fields and gardens like those of the monks; 
some showed the people how to work in stone and 
wood and metal ; and others had schools in which 
they taught children and young men. Many Eng- 
lishmen went abroad to be missionaries to the people 
in the north of German}^, and in Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway. 



CHAPTER V 

Egbert, King of the English — The Danes Invade England — 

Alfred the Deliverer 

(From 800 to 871 a.d.) 

At first the Saxon invaders formed a number of 
separate kingdoms in Britain, among which were 
those of the East Saxons (or Essex), the West Saxons 
(Wessex), and the South Saxons (Sussex). For 
many years these were always warring with one 
another; but in 827 a king of Wessex, named Egbert, 
forced all the other kingdoms to obey him, and took 
the title of King of the English. But there was no 
peace for the country, for new and terrible enemies 
began to afflict it now. These were the Northmen, 
or Danes, who came from Norway and Denmark. 
Their chiefs were called Vikings, or Sea-Kings, and 
they were excellent seamen and very brave, but 
fearfully cruel. 

At first they only visited the English coasts for a 
few weeks at a time, and then returned to their own 
country, carrying with them all the spoil they could 
gather. But soon they began to treat the Saxons 



24 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

just as the Saxons had treated the Britons four hun- 
dred years before. Year after year fresh swarms of 
Danes landed in England, and spread themselves 
over the country. They plundered and burnt the 
towns, and made slaves of the people. The Sea- 
kings were worshippers of Odin, and had a particu- 
lar hatred for the Christian priests, whom they put 
to death without mercy, and destroyed the churches 
and monasteries. 

It seemed as if all England would soon be in the 
hands of these terrible strangers, but a deliverer ap- 
peared in the person of the great and good King 
Alfred. He was the grandson of Egbert, and was 
born in 849, twelve years after Egbert's death. 
Even when a little child, Alfred had shown himself 
brave and quick to learn — not to learn from books, 
for neither his father nor any one else had so much 
as taught him his letters. But he learned to use his 
spear and bow and arrows against the wild animals 
in the forests. He listened eagerly to the minstrels, 
when they sang of the great things done in old time 
by heroes and brave men, and he learned to sing like 
them and to play upon the harp. One day the queen 
showed him a book, and told him it should be his if 
he would learn to read it. It was adorned with 
beautiful pictures, and full of poems like those which 
the minstrels sang. Alfred would not rest till he 
had found some one to teach him to read, and now 
that he had gained one book he sought eagerly after 
more. But it was not easy for any one, even for a 
king's son, to get books then. Printing was not in- 
vented till 1450, six hundred years after Alfred's 
time, and in his days all books had to be written by 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 25 

hand. This made them so dear that persons some- 
times gave a great deal of land or money to procure 
one volume. But Alfred read and learned every- 
thing that he could. ' He was often called away 
from his studies to help his elder brothers to fight 
against the Danes, who had gained all England now 
except Wessex, and were trying to obtain that also. 
In the course of the war, Alfred's brothers died, and 
he became king in the year 871. 



CHAPTER VI 

REIGN OF ALFRED 

(From 871 to goi a.d.) 

Alfred's subjects were not much pleased with 
him at first, although he fought bravely in their de- 
fence. He was vexed at their ignorance, and felt 
inclined to despise men who cared for nothing but 
hunting and feasting. Most of the people deserted 
him; some submitted to the Danes, others fled out 
of the country, and Alfred was obliged to disguise 
himself like a poor man and take refuge in the cot- 
tage of a swineherd. He lived and worked like 
one of the family, and the mistress of the cottage 
thought he was a poor soldier who had escaped out 
of the hands of the Danes. 

One day, as he sat by the fire trimming his bow 
and arrows, she bade him watch the cakes she had 
set on the hearth to bake, and see that they did not 
bum. Alfred promised ; but as he sat there alone, 
thinking of his country overrun by the cruel Danes, 
he forgot the bread, and when the good woman came 
back her cakes were burning to cinders. She was 



26 Merrill's English history 

very angry, and told him he was always ready enough 
to eat her bread, and yet was so lazy he could not even 
be trusted to bake it. Some time afterward she 
found out it was Alfred the king whom she had 
scolded so sharply; but he only laughed, and said 
he should always be grateful to her and her husband 
for havinof sheltered him in his distress. Alfred did 
not despise any one now for being ignorant ; he had 
learned to be gentle and lowly in heart. 

As the spring came on, the king gathered round 
him a little band of faithful friends, and took up his 
abode at Athelney, in Somersetshire. It was then a 
little woody islet, surrounded by marshes. From 
this place, the king and his friends often came forth 
and attacked small parties of Danes, who could 
never find out where their assailants came from. 
As for Alfred, they thought he was dead or gone 
away to some foreign country. 

The people of Wessex often lamented now that 
they had forsaken their king, for the Danes used 
them very badly. Alfred heard how sorry they were, 
and thought they would help him now to drive away 
their enemies; so he sent secret messages to the 
chief men, bidding them arm themselves and come 
to him. Before he attacked the Danish encampment 
he wished to find out how they had fortified it. He 
put on the dress of a minstrel, took a harp in his 
hand, and ventured boldly into the midst of his 
enemies. They were delighted with his music, and 
suffered him to come and go when he pleased, and 
to see everything — for they little suspected who the 
harper was. Alfred now returned to his friends, led 
them against the Danes, and gained a complete 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 27 

victory. He wanted to turn his enemies into friends, 
if he could, so he persuaded the Danish chief to leave 
off worshipping Odin, and gave him a great tract of 
land in the east of England, that he might live there 
peaceably with his followers. 

A great many Danes had already settled in the 
north, but they all obeyed Alfred now, and England 
was in peace at last. The Northmen came with 
great fleets more than once, but they were always 
driven away by the wise king, who taught the Eng- 
lish to build good ships, that they might have a 
fleet of their own to guard the coasts. Before Alfred 
died, there were a hundred vessels which bore his 
flag, and Englishmen were learning to make long 
voyages and to trade with foreign countries. 

Alfred did many things for his people beside 
teaching them to be good seamen. He worked day 
and night to make England v/ise and free andhapp}". 
He gave his subjects good laws and just judges. He 
encouraged every one to learn something useful, 
wrote e^icellent books for them, built schools, and 
sought out the best and wisest men to be teachers. 

All this while, Alfred was afflicted with a most 
painful disease, which wasted his strength day by 
day. But he labored on till his death, never losing 
heart. He died in 901, leaving the kingdom to his 
son, Edward the Elder. 



28 Merrill's ENGLISH history 



CHAPTER VII 

Edward the Elder, goi — Athelstan, 925 — Battle of Brunanburg, 
937 — Edgar, 958 — Ethelred the Unready, 979 — Massacre of 
the Danes, 1002 — England Conquered by Sweyn the 
Dane, 1013 

(From 901 to 1017 a.d.) 

Edward the Elder was a brave and wise prince. 
He ruled for twenty-four years, and was succeeded 
by his ■ son Athelstan, who reigned with more glory 
than any of the Saxon kings except Alfred. Athel- 
stan followed in the steps of Alfred, by encouraging 
learning and trade with foreign countries. He 
made a law that every one who built a ship, and 
crossed the seas in it three times, should become a 
nobleman and have a right to sit in the Witan. The 
Witan was the Great Council of England, which 
helped the kings to make laws; and sometimes, when 
the king died, the Witan chose his successor. 

When Athelstan had reigned twelve years, the 
country was invaded by an immense army of Danes 
and Scots, but they were utterly routed by the king 
at Brunanburg, in Northumberland. A famous 
poem was made about this battle. It describes the 
dreadful field covered with the dead, and the wolves 
and ravens which came and feasted on the bodies of 
the slain. But Athelstan was very kind to his pris- 
oners, and sent them away in peace when they had 
promised not to invade England again. Three years 
afterward, in 940, Athelstan died. 

The Danes kept their promise, and did not molest 
the country for a great many years after his death; 
yet England was not very peaceful or prosperous, 
for the kings who reigned during the next seventy 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 29 

years were not so wise as Athelstan had been. The 
most powerful of them was Edgar, who reigned from 
958 to 975 ; he is famous for having tried to destroy 
the wolves and other fierce beasts in the woods and 
mountains. The princes of Wales had agreed to pay 
him a yearly tribute ; but Edgar said that instead of 
money they should bring him three hundred wolves' 
heads everj year until they could find no more. 

Edgar's eldest son was murdered by his wicked 
stepmother, that she might place her own child, a 
little boy called Ethelred, on the throne. The curse 
of that evil deed seemed to rest on all Ethelred's 
reign. He grew up to be a bad man, idle, cruel, and 
fond of eating and drinking. He was never ready 
to drive away the enemies of England nor to do any- 
thing for the good of the kingdom, and his subjects 
named him in contempt " Ethelred the Unready." 

The Danes came back now, and began to harass 
the people as they had done in the old times before 
Alfred. Ethelred tried to bribe them to go away, 
and made his subjects pay heavy taxes that he might 
give the money to the Danes. The Danes alwiys 
took Ethelred's bribes and promised to go away, and 
then they came back again and demanded more 
money. So Ethelred tried to rid himself of them in 
another way, which was more shameful still. He 
gave secret orders that all the Danes in England 
should be put to death; and on the 13th of Novem- 
ber, 1002, thousands of men and women were treacher- 
ously murdered — even the little children were not 
spared. But this great crime could only bring more 
misery both to the king and the people. 

Sweyn, King of Denmark, came with a great fleet 



30 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

and army, and ravaged all the land till the people 
were driven to despair. Their houses were burnt 
and their crops destroyed, and so many persons per- 
ished by famine or by the sword that England did 
not now contain nearly so many people as before. 
At last the whole country submitted to Sweyn as 
king, and Ethelred fled for refuge to the Duke of 
Normandy, whose sister he had married. Sweyn 
lived but a few weeks after he had become King of 
England, and Ethelred came back; but he found a 
powerful enemy in Sweyn's son, Canute, who after 
Ethelred 's death became king. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Canute, 1017 — Edward the Confessor 
(From 1017 to 1051 a.d.) 

Canute reigned over England for nineteen years 
and was much liked b}^ the people, because he treated 
them kindly and did justice to all alike, whether 
they were Danes or Englishmen. He tried to repair 
the mischief which had been done by his father's 
army, and rebuilt the churches and schools which 
had been destroyed. He was very kind to learned 
men, yet there were few .persons in England who 
cared to learn; for the English had been growing 
more ignorant instead of becoming wiser than their 
fathers. Very few of them could read and write, 
and even the priests scarcely knew anything at all. 
. Canute was King of Denmark, Sweden, and Nor- 
way, as well as of England ; and now that there was 
peace among all these countries, the ships of the 
merchants went freely to and fro, and the citizens of 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 3 1 

London and other Englisli towns began to grow rich 
by trade. 

Canute made several voyages himself, and liked 
to have very fine ships. They were curiously adorned 
with carved work and gilding, the sails were of pur- 
ple embroidered with gold, and large figures, like 
birds with their. wings spread, were placed on the 
top of the masts. Some foolish men, seeing that 
Canute was surrounded by great pomp and wealth, 
thought to please him by praising his power and call- 
ing him the ruler of earth and sea. He bade them 
come with him to the water-side, and seated himself 
in state on the sea-shore when the tide was cominof 
in. Then he spoke to the sea, and said, " I command 
thee to come no farther, and not to wet the feet of 
thy sovereign!" But the waves rolled on, and rose 
higher and higher on the beach till they washed over 
the king's feet and surrounded the chair on which he 
was sitting. "See, "said he, turning to his foolish 
flatterers, " and remember that there is only One 
Ruler of the earth and sea — He who can say to the 
ocean, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther,' 
and it will obey Him." Canute wore his crown no 
more after that day, to show that he was only a ser- 
vant of the King of kings. 

After the death of Canute, two of his sons reigned 
over England, but they were very bad and foolish 
princes, and the latter of the two killed himself by 
excessive drinking. The English now chose Edward, 
a son of Ethelred the Unready, to be their king. 
He was afterward called Edward the Confessor. 
Edward was mild and gentle, but he was not a wise 
king; instead of looking well to the safety of his 



32 Merrill's English history 

kingdom, and seeing that all his peo|)le were well 
governed, he allowed first one great man and then 
another to take all the power into their own hands. 

The walls and fortifications of the towns went to 
ruin, and there was no money to repair them or to 
provide for the fleets which should have guarded the 
country, because the king spent it all in making gifts 
to his favorites or in building and enriching monas- 
teries. Pie had lived so long in Normandy that he 
was more like a foreigner than an Englishman, and 
he loved the Norman language and customs better 
than those of England. He also made his subjects 
very jealous by giving all the riches and honors he 
could to his Norman friends. He made them bish- 
ops, and earls, and governors of towns; but the 
people hated them, for the Normans were proud and 
covetous, and showed great scorn for the English 
laws. 

The richest and most powerful man among the 
English was Earl Godwin; it was chiefly through 
him that Edward had been made king, and Edward 
had married Godwin's daughter Edith, a good and 
beautiful woman. The Normans detested Godwin, 
because he shielded his countrymen from their op- 
pression, and they persuaded Edward that he was a 
traitor and ought to be banished with all his family. 
Only the queen, Edith, remained in England; but 
the foolish king took away all her property and shut 
her up in a convent. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 33 



CHAPTER IX 

Harold and William of Normandy 
(From 105 1 to 1066 a.d.) 

God \\ IN did not stay away long, and as soon as he 
showed himself in England again the people, and 
even the king's soldiers, flocked to him. The Nor- 
mans ran away and escaped from the country as fast 
as they could. Soon after this, Godwin died. He 
left several sons, the eldest of whom was named 
Harold. Harold was a great favorite with the people, 
for he w^as very brave, wise, and generous. The 
king also was fond of him, and left all the cares of 
government in his hands. 

Harold deserved to be trusted by the king, for he 
loved his country dearly, and strove with all his 
power to defend it from foreign enemies and to make 
the people prosperous and happy. He had a brother, 
called Tosti, who was very unlike himself. Tosti 
was governor of Northumbria, but he was so unjust 
and cruel that the people rose in rebellion and turned 
him out. He hoped that Harold would force them 
to take him back again, but he had behaved so 
wickedly that Harold could not help him. He was 
obliged to leave England, and went away with a heart 
full of revenge. In the end, this bad man became a 
most dangerous enemy to his country. 

In the beginning of January, 1066, King Edward 
the Confessor died ; and now times of terrible trouble 
came upon England. During many years, a neigh- 
boring prince had been looking on the land with a 
covetous eye, and planning to seize it for his own as 



34 Merrill's English history 

soon as Edward should die. This prince was William, 
Duke of Normandy ; he was a great warrior and very 
ambitious. He generally contrived to obtain what 
he wished, either by fair words or by force, or, if 
neither would do, by falsehood and cunning. 

William knew that the man who would be most 
likely to prevent him from seizing upon England was 
Harold, but he thought he had found out the way to 
make Harold help him. About a year before King 
Edward died, Harold had visited Normandy, not sus- 
pecting any evil. William received him with a great 
show of courtesy and friendship , but he would not 
let him go back to his own country till he had taken 
an oath that when Edward died he would persuade 
the English people to choose William for their 
king. 

When Harold told his countrymen what he had 
done, they declared that he would be guilty of a 
greater sin if he kept such an oath than if he broke 
it, for he had no right to try to make a foreign prince 
king of England; and after Edward's death they 
chose Harold to be king. There was still a prince 
of the royal family living; he was called Edgar 
Atheling, and was the son of a nephew of Edward 
the Confessor. But the English did not choose 
Edgar for their king because he was only a boy, and 
not at all a bright boy; and they thought they must 
have a wise and brave man to help them to resist the 
Duke of Normandy. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 35 

CHAPTER X 

Battle o£ Hastings 
(1066 A.D.) 

William was exceedingly angry when he heard 
that Harold was the new king. He sent to the Pope 
to ask him to curse Harold for having broken his 
oath. The Pope did so, and declared that all who 
helped Harold were accursed also. He said, too, 
that the throne belonged now to William of Nor- 
mandy. 

Great numbers of fighting men went from Italy 
and other countries to join the army of Normandy. 
Some of these were brave knights and warriors, but 
others were mere robbers and murderers, ready to 
commit any crime for the sake of gain. William 
promised to all who came that they should be re- 
warded with the lands and goods of the English. 

All this while Harold w^as not idle; he was hard 
at work getting an army together and providing a 
fleet to watch the coasts, that William might not be 
able to land any troops in England. But the country 
was threatened by two enemies at once. There were 
the Normans, waiting impatiently for a fair wind 
which would enable them to set sail for the south 
coast; and there was the wicked Tosti, who had per- 
suaded the king of Norway to help him with a great 
fleet of three hundred ships and thousands of fighting 
men, and who now came and landed in the north. 

Harold was watching the south coast when he 
heard that Tosti and the King of Norway were in 
Yorkshire. He marched northward instantly, took 
them by surprise, and overthrew them in a terrible 



36 Merrill's English history 

battle, in which both his brother and the Norwegian 
king were slain. Harold had twice offered Tosti 
peace, for he did not wish to fight with his own 
brother, but Tosti was determined on war. Nearly 
all the army of Norway and a great many of the 
English fell in this battle. Harold himself was 
wounded, and was resting at York when a messenger 
rushed into his presence, breathless with haste, and 
said," The Duke of Normandy has landed in Sussex 
with the mightiest army ever seen in England, and 
is ravaging the country far and near. " Harold did 
not wait a day, but with such troops as he could 
collect, less than one-third of the number of Will- 
iam's army, he set out for Sussex. 

The Normans could not have landed if Harold's 
fleet had been at its post, but the ships had exhausted 
their provisions and had to go into port to get more. 
And just at that time the wind, which had been con- 
trary for several weeks, changed to the southward 
and enabled William's vessels to cross the Channel. 

The battle which was to decide the fate ot England 
began early on the 14th of October, 1066. Harold 
made the best disposition he could of his little army, 
and above all things charged his men not to break 
the firm solid line in which he had formed them. 
They fought on foot, for the English had very few 
horsemen. The Normans, on the contrary, were the 
best riders and had the finest horses in Europe. Yet 
they fought fiercely during several hours without 
gaining any advantage over the little army who were 
doing battle for their homes and their country — all 
that they held dear. But William directed his troops 
to feign flight ; and from that moment the doom of 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 37 

the English was sealed. When once they saw their 
foes flying, they could not be restrained, but rushed 
over the field in hot pursuit. This was all that AVil- 
liam wanted; he brought up fresh troops now and 
overwhelmed the scattered English with numbers. 
Still while the daylight lasted they fought on, 
though with no hope of victory; and when night 
came the battle-field and the roads leading to it were 
headed with the slain. 

J. 

Harold and a few men who kept by him to the last 
planted their flag firmly in the ground, and defended 
it till every one of them was killed. Then the flag 
was torn up, and William pitched his tent in the 
midst of the dead and feasted in honor of the victory 
which had gained him a kingdom. To the English 
that sad day was the beginning of long years of op- 
pression and misery. This memorable battle was 
fought on a field, then called Senlac, about eight 
miles from Hastings. William afterward built an 
abbey on the spot where the fight had raged the 
most fiercely, and called it Battle Abbey. 



CHAPTER XI 

William I. surnamed the Conqueror 
(From 1066 to 1087) 

Now that Harold was dead, the English had no 
chief who could resist William of Normandy. He 
was crov/ned King of England on the Christmas day 
following the battle of Hastings, and promised to 
govern the people according to their own laws ; but 
they soon found out that he did not intend to keep 
his promise. 



38 Merrill's ENGLISH history 

So many changes were made in England that it 
seemed almost like another countr}^ The Witan met 
no more to make laws and to help to govern the 
kingdom, for most of the chief men had been killed, 
and those who remained had their property taken 
from them and were obliged to serve the Normans. 
William took a great deal of land for himself, and 
divided the remainder among six or seven hundred 
of his followers. These men were called Barons, 
and were now looked upon as the noblemen of Eng- 
land. They were also called the king's vassals, be- 
cause they did homage to him for the lands which 
he had given them. That is, they came and knelt 
before the king, put their hands between his, and 
swore to serve him faithfully both in peace and war. 

The land for which a baron did homage was called 
his feod or feud, and the king was hi^ feudal lord. 
But every baron was himself a feudal lord, with 
vassals of his own ; for he divided part of the lands 
which the king had given him among his relatives 
and friends, and they swore to serve him as he had 
sworn to serve the king. A chief part of the vas- 
sals' service was to provide their feudal lord with 
armed men and horses in time of v/ar. 

The barons built themselves strong castles, and 
ruled like little kings in the midst of their vassals. 
They went to war one with another, and some even 
ventured to make war on the king, but William was 
far too powerful a ruler to be overcome by any of 
his subjects. It was, however, a long time before he 
could force all the English to submit to him. In the 
north especially, they made a brave stand for their 
freedom. William revenged himself by laying waste 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 39 

all the land between the Humber and the Tyne ; the 
villages were burnt, the fields made a wilderness, 
and the cattle driven away. The people, cast out of 
their homes, without food to eat or a roof to shelter 
them, died miserably, and for more than sixty years 
afterward all that country remained a desert. But 
the merciless king had gained his end; no one dared 
to resist him now, and he was master of England 
from north to south. 

His reign lasted nearly twenty-one years, and 
might have been longer but for his own fierce, re- 
vengeful temper. The king of France made a rude 
jest about him; William was so enraged that he set 
forward at once to lead an army against the city of 
Paris, and ordered his soldiers to burn every town 
they came to. They reached Mantes and set fire to 
it, and William rode about, watching the burning of 
houses and churches. But it w^as his last ride; the 
horse trod on some hot embers, and began to start 
and plunge so violently that the king was badly 
hurt. His men carried him back to his own city of 
Rouen, but he never recovered from the injury, and 
died a few weeks afterward, September 9th, 1087. 

William was buried in an abbey at Caen in the 
north-eastern part of France, which had been founded 
by him more than twenty years before his death; 
but the land on vv^hich it was built had been taj^en by 
violence from a number of poor people who owned 
it. When William's corpse had been brought into 
the church and orations had been spoken in his 
honor, the cry of " Ha Ro!" the Norman appeal for 
justice, was suddenly heard, and a man in mean gar- 
ments stood forth, saying: "Clergy and bishops, this 



40 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

ground is mine. Here was my father's hearth. The 
man whom yon praise wrested it from me to build 
this church. In the name of Rollo, the founder of 
his family, I forbid you to lay the body of the spoiler 
therein or to cover it with my earth." The bishops 
were obliged to promise satisfaction to the man, and 
to pay him on the spot sixty pence as the price of 
the Conqueror's grave. 

In another French church, the cathedral at Bayeux, 
there is a curious piece of work made by Matilda, 
the wife o^ the Conqueror. It is a long but narrow 
strip of tapestry, on which is embroidered the story 
of Harold's journey to Normandy, and the events 
that followed up to the middle of the battle of Has- 
tings, where it is left unfinished. The drawing is 
rude and the coloring very droll, the horses being 
red, green, or blue, and the castles and other build- 
ings of all the colors of the rainbow. Yet William, 
Harold, and other leading persons in the history, are 
so welVportrayed that their faces can be recognized 
wherever they occur. Their dress and armor, and 
all the details of the picture, are evidently so ac- 
curate that the tapestry is really very valuable for 
the light it throws upon the manners and customs of 
the time. 

Beside the new laws and customs which William 
and his Normans brought into England, they intro- 
duced another language. William ordered that the 
laws of the country should be written in the Norman- 
French, and all the barons and rich men spoke 
French and despised the English tongue. But as 
time went on, their sons and grandsons began to 
speak English, and the English mixed Norman words 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 4I 

with their own. In this way our present English 
language was formed. Most of our words come from 
the old Saxon English, but there are also a great 
many taken from the Norman-French. 

Two of William's works remain to remind us of 
him — the Tower of London, which he caused to be 
begun; and the great tract of woodland in Hamp- 
shire, called the New Forest. He was extremely 
fond of hunting, and pulled down villages and even 
churches to enlarge this forest and make more room 
for the deer. He also made terrible laws to prevent 
any one from meddling with the game. If a man 
killed a stag he was punished as severely as if he had 
been a murderer, and even for killing the wild boars 
men had their eyes put out. 



CHAx^TER XII 

William II., surnamed Rufus, 1087 — Henry I., surnamed 

Beauclerc, iioo 

(From 1087 to 1135) 

William the First left three sons: Robert; Wil- 
liam, surnamed Rufus, on account of his red hair 
and complexion; and Henry. Robert became Duke 
of Normandy at his father's death, and William was 
made King of England. Many of the barons wished 
Robert to be king, and they raised an army to put 
down William, who turned to the English for help. 
He promised that, if they would stand up for him 
against the barons, he would give them back their 
good old laws, and not suffer them to be ill-used as 
they had been in his father's time. They fought for 
him so bravely that Robert's friends were soon glad 
to make peace; but William broke all the promises 



42 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

he had made to his English subjects, and he was in 
every way so bad a king that no one could be sorry 
when his reign came to an end. 

On the 2d of August, iioo, he went out to hunt 
in the New Forest, and was shot dead by an arrow 
which Walter Tyrrel, one of his companions, aimed 
at a stag. No one seemed to care in the least; his 
dead body was left lying on the ground where it had 
fallen, till some poor charcoal-burners, who chanced 
to pass that way, took it up and carried it in their 
cart to Winchester. 

Some years before the death of William Rufus, it 
had been settled that, if his brother Robert outlived 
him, he should be king of England. But Robert 
was far away. He had gone with many other princes 
and warriors to the East, to deliver the city of Jeru- 
salem and the Holy Land from the Saracens, a Ma- 
hometan people who had conquered Syria and all 
the neighboring countries. The wars made for this 
purpose were called Crusades; there were in all 
seven Crusades, but this was the first one. 

Robert being out of the way, his brother Henry 
persuaded the people to choose him for king. They 
were the more ready to do this because he took for 
his wife the Lady Maude, who was descended from 
the old royal family of England. The English loved 
this lady very much, and they hoped she would pre- 
vail with Henry to treat them better than his father 
and brother had done. He did make many fine prom- 
ises, and said the English should be as free as they 
had been in the old times before the Normans came 
into England ; but he promised much more than he 
performed. There was, however, one good thing in 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 43 

Henry's reign: he was often cruel and unjust him- 
self, but he would not suffer the barons to oppress 
the people as they had done before. 

He was not long contented to be only King of Eng- 
land; in 1 1 06 he seized upon Normandy, and shut up 
his unhappy brother Robert in prison for the re- 
mainder of his life. After this Henry was often 
away in Normandy, taking care of his new dominions, 
while Queen Maude remained in England, and spent 
much of her time in ministering to the sick and poor. 
She died in 1118, greatly lamented by the English. 

Maude left two children, William and Matilda; 
neither of them resembled their good and gentle 
mother. Matilda had been taken from her parents 
when she was a very little girl, to be married to the 
Emperor of Germany. She grew up to baa haughty, 
imperious woman. William had been heard to say 
that when he became king, he would have the Eng- 
lish yoked to the plough like oxen ; but he never 
lived to wear the crown. He was drowned at sea in 
1 120. 

Henry grieved bitterly over his son's death, and, 
though he lived fifteen years longer, he was never 
seen to smile again. He tried to comfort himself by 
sending for his daughter Matilda, and made the 
chief men promise that she should be Queen of Eng- 
land after his death. Her husband, the emperor, 
was dead; her father found another husband for her, 
Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, in France, 
and she had a son, called Henry Plantagenet, who 
became in time a famous king. 

On the ist of December, 1135, King Henry the 
First died. He was fond of learning, and the Nor- 



44 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

mans gave him the name of Beauclerc, which meant 
"fine scholar." He was fond also of raising grand 
buildings, and began to build Windsor Castle. His 
brother William had built the first Westminster 
Hall in London; and several Norman barons and 
bishops had begun to adorn England with stately 
castles and abbeys. 

CHAPTER Xni 

Stephen, 1135 — Henry II., 1154 — Thomas-a-Becket 
(From 1 135 to 11 74) 

Henry the First had a nephew named Stephen, 
who had promised, like the other chief men, that 
Matilda should be Queen of England when her father 
died. Instead of keeping his promise he persuaded 
a number of the barons to make him king. Dreadful 
misery came upon England now. Some of the chief 
men took Stephen's part, and some took Matilda's, 
and one half of the nation foueht aQ;-ainst the other 
half. A war like this, between men of the same 
country, is called civil war^ and it is the worst and 
most terrible of all wars. 

Both parties hired foreign soldiers to assist them, 
and some of the barons filled their castles with armed 
men who went about robbing the people. If they 
thought any one had hidden some portion of his 
money or goods, they carried him away to one of 
these castles and used him cruelly till he gave up 
everything or died; for very often there was nothing 
to give up. The country people fled into the woods 
to hide themselves, leaving the fields untilled year 
after year, and food became so scarce that many per- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 45 

sons died of famine, beside the numbers who were 
killed in battle. This wretched war lasted nearly 
fifteen years. At last it was agreed that Stephen 
should be king as long as he lived, but that Matilda's 
son, Henry Plantagenet, should reign after him ; and 
England was once more at peace. The following 
year Stephen died, October, 1154. 

Henry Plantagenet was twenty-one years old when 
he became King of England. He was always a very 
powerful prince; he inherited Normandy and Anjou 
from his parents, and his wife Eleanor had brought 
him all the rich and beautiful provinces in the south- 
west of France. The English received him joyfully; 
he had shown already that he was very industrious 
and able, and liked to go through the country to see 
whether the judges and officers were doing their duty 
or not. They hoped to be well governed now, and 
they were not disappointed ; England prospered and 
Was in peace during many years. 

But Henry's reign was not so peaceful to himself 
as for his subjects. His first great trouble was a 
quarrel with Thomas-a-Becket, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury. Becket was only the son of a London 
trader, but his genius and learning had raised him 
to the highest posts in the kingdom ; no Englishman 
had ever stood so high since the battle of Hastings. 
He had been a brave, skilful leader in battle, an am- 
bassador, tutor to the king's eldest son, and chancel- 
lor of the kingdom. In every office he had served the 
king faithfully, and was his favorite friend and com- 
panion. But all this favor and friendship came to an 
end when Becket was made Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Henry raised him to that high office because he 



4^ Merrill's English history 

hoped Becket would help him to alter the laws relat- 
ing to the clergy, who were not subject to the same 
laws as the rest of the people. If a priest committed a 
crime, he was not tried by the king's judges like other 
men ; he was tried in the courts of the bishops, and 
those courts had no power to sentence him to death, 
even when he was guilty of the greatest wickedness. 
Henry wished the clergy to be subject to the same 
laws and judges as the rest of the people, and he 
thought Becket would assist him. to bring this about. 
Becket told the king he could not help him, and 
would rather not be made archbishop; but Henry 
would have it so, and then came years of disputing. 
Neither the king nor the archbishop was always in 
the right, and both of them were men of violent tem- 
per. At last the king said one day in a rage, " Does 
no one love me enough to rid me of this insolent 
piiest?" Four knights who heard these words at 
once made haste to Canterbury and savagely mur- 
dered the archbishop in his own cathedral, Decem- 
ber 29, 1 1 70. 

Becket showed a brave willingness to die; but 
after his death every one was shocked at the crime 
which had been committed, and expected that some 
heavy judgment would fall on the murderers, and 
on the king himself if he had consented to the death 
of the archbishop. Henry declared that he had never 
intended him to be killed, though in the heat of anger 
he had spoken as if he wished for his death. To 
show his sorrow, he did penance according to the 
custom of those times, by going barefoot to Becket's 
tomb and submitting to be severely scourged by 
the monks. 



Merrill's English history 47 



CHAPTER XIV 

Wars between Henry II. and his Sons — Conquest of Ireland 
(From 116S to ii8g) 

King Henry's bitterest troubles gathered round 
the closing years of his life. He had four sons, 
Henry, Ricliard, Geoffrey, and John. The oldest 
and youngest were his favorites; Richard and 
Geoffrey were left more to the care of their mother. 
But neither Henry nor Eleanor set a good example 
to their children, and the four princes, ill-trained by 
their parents, grew up proud, passionate, and unduti- 
ful. When their father offended them, they raised 
troops in their mother's French provinces, and made 
war upon him. In the midst of their rebellion, 
Prince Henry was seized with a fatal illness. His 
conscience now accused him bitterly because of his 
undutiful conduct, and he died in miserable anguish 
and remorse. 

The other princes were not made better by the sad 
end of their brother. Geoffrey was killed soon after 
by an accident — he fell from his horse and was 
trodden under foot in a great crowd — but Richard 
again went to war with his father. It is true that 
King Henry had used his son Richard very ill, but 
Richard was now joined by John, the darling child 
of his father, who had kept John always with him 
and indulged him far more than any of his brothers. 
This last sorrow quite broke the king's heart. When 
he heard that John was among the rebels, he burst 
into an agony of rage and disappointment, pronounced 
a bitter curse on his unnatural children, and in a 



4^ Merrill's English history 

short time ended his days, worn out with vexation 
and grief, July 6th, 1189. 

Henry the Second was the first English king who 
possessed any part of Ireland. At that time Ireland 
was divided into a number of little kingdoms, and 
the princes of those kingdoms were constantly 
quarrelling and at war with one another. One of 
them, Dermot, King of Leinster, was driven out of 
his territory, and came over to England in 11 68 to 
ask for help. Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, and 
some other nobles, went to Ireland to fight for him, 
and to get lands for themselves. They succeeded so 
well that when King Henry went over, in 1171, al- 
most all the Irish chiefs made submission to him. 
From that time the kings of England were called 
lords of Ireland, but it was long before they really 
had much power over the country. The English 
noblemen who settled there became like little kings 
in their own lands, and would only obey the King of 
England when they were forced to do so. They made 
war upon one another and upon the native Irish, 
whom they drove into the wildest and most distant 
parts of the island ; and for hundreds of years Ire- 
land was never at peace. 



CHAPTER XV 

Richard I., surnamed Coeur de Lion 
(From ii8g to iigg) 

When Prince Richard heard of his father's sorrow- 
ful end, he was greatly grieved and shocked; he 
wept bitterly over his corpse, and reproached himself 
with having done so much to pain him. But his 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 49 

sorrow was not deep enough to cure the haughty 
passionate spirit which had made him an undutiful 
son, and which led him, all his life, to quarrel fiercely 
with every one who offended him. Richard had, 
however, some fine qualities, and the English were 
very proud of their new king, who was the wonder 
of his time for bravery. All kings and nobles were 
soldiers in those days, and v/ould have thought it a 
great disgrace not to fight well, but Richard sur- 
passed them all. Men called him Coeur de Lion — 
the king with the Lion's Heart. 

Unfortunately, he liked nothing else so well as 
fighting; he would not stay at home and take care 
®f his kingdom, but set forth upon a crusade. Jeru- 
salem had fallen into the hands of Saladin, the Sultan 
of Egypt, and Richard was bent upon delivering it. 
He made all his subjects who had any money help 
him to fit out a fleet and army, and the bravest nobles 
in England gathered their followers and went cru- 
sading with the king. 

Philip, King of France, and Leopold, Duke of Aus- 
tria, went also, but they both quarrelled with Richard. 
Philip was jealous of him and hated to hear every 
one admiring his courage, and Leopold had received 
very rude treatment from Richard when he was in a 
passion. So they both left the crusade. Philip went 
back to France, and revenged himself by trying to 
take Normandy and the other French provinces 
which belonged to Richard. Leopold revenged him- 
self in another way, as you will learn. 

Richard's own troops were so wasted with the 
hardships of the war that he could not take Jerusalem 
after. the other princes had left him. He was so bit- 



so MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

terly disappointed that he would not even look on 
the city from afar, but turned sorrowfully away and 
prepared to go back to his own land, which had fallen 
into sad confusion while he was away. Prince John 
had gained over the worst of the barons, and was 
trying with their help to steal the kingdom from 
his brother. These bad men oppressed the people 
grievously, and no one was powerful enough to put 
them down. Bands of robbers roamed about the 
country, attacked travellers, and plundered farms 
and villages. 

All good and peaceable men were longing for their 
king to return, but Richard was far away, shut up 
in prison. He had been shipwrecked while going 
home, and was obliged to make his way through 
Austria. He knew Leopold would be watching for 
him, so he sent away all his companions except one 
or two, and travelled on foot, calling himself Hugh 
the Merchant. But Leopold found him out and put 
him in prison ; then he sold him to the Emperor of 
Germany, who put him in another prison. 

When Prince John and Philip of France heard 
what had befallen Richard, they were delighted, and 
promised the emperor a great sum of money if he 
would keep him in prison. But the emperor dared 
not do so, for all good men cried shame upon him 
when they heard that he had imprisoned the bravest 
warrior in Christendom. He was, however, base 
enough to make the English pay an enormous ransom 
for their king before he would let him go. 

There is a tradition that the news of Richard's 
captivity first reached England through a minstrel 
named Blondel, who had gone with the king to the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 51 

Holy Land. It is said that he wandered through 
Germany, seeking for his master, and singing 
Richard's favorite song under the walls of every 
castle. At last he was rewarded for his fidelity by 
hearing from a tower the voice of the king, who had 
heard his song and repeated it in reply. 

Richard was received in England with transports 
of joy, but he did not stay there long ; and the re- 
mainder of his life was spent in France, warring 
against Philip or against rebels in his own provinces. 
He was killed in April, 1199, while besieging a castle 
in which he thought one of them had hidden some 
treasure. 

Out of a reign of ten years, Richard had spent 
scarcely eight months in England, and was never 
heard to speak English but once; yet the English 
people loved him. Of all the kings that had reigned 
since the battle of Hastings, he was the only one 
who had seemed to like his English subjects, and 
they forgave all his faults because he honored their 
bravery and treated them with kindness. There was 
still a great distinction between the men of English 
and Norman race, and they had not yet learned to like 
one another. The Normans thought themselves su- 
perior to their English neighbors, and the English 
hated the Norman pride. They lived also in a very 
different way. The Normans were fond of state and 
ceremony, fine castles, and gay clothes ; the English 
did not care about outside show, and were contented 
to live in rude timber houses, if they could feast their 
friends and neighbors, and have plenty of hunting 
and amusement. 

But the time was coming when all wise men would 



52 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

unite to defend themselves and their countrymen 
against the tyranny of John; and from that time the 
two races of men in England began to look upon one 
another as brothers, and the sons of Norman fathers 
became proud of the name of Englishman. 



CHAPTER XVI 

John, 1 199 — The Great Charter, 121 5 
(From 1 199 to 1216) 

Richard the First left no children, and desired 
that his brother John might be king after him, 
though there was a prince who seemed to have a 
better right to the throne. This was Arthur, the son 
of that Prince Geoffrey who had been killed by fall- 
ing from his horse. But Arthur was only twelve 
years old, and the English gave the crown to John. 
The King of France took Arthur's part, and this led 
to a war which lasted till poor Arthur was taken 
prisoner and put to death by order of his cruel uncle. 
Most persons believed that John had murdered his 
nephew with his own hands, and the chief men of 
Normandy declared that so wicked a prince was not 
fit to rule over them. They gave up their province 
to the King of France, and by degrees John was 
driven out of all his French possessions except 
Guienne, part of the country which had belonged to 
his mother Eleanor. 

He might still have been a powerful king if he 
had tried to rule England well, but he governed so 
badly that the people could not endure him. He 
was fearfully cruel. Other princes had put men to 
death unjustly, and had been guilty of many bar- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 5;^ 

barons actions; but John was the first English sov- 
ereign who had shut up men, women, and children 
in dungeons, and left them to die by the slow agony 
of hunger. He was cowardly as well as cruel. He 
quarrelled with the Pope, and defied him to do his 
worst ; then, becoming afraid, he gave up his crown 
and kingdom of England into the Pope's hands, say- 
ing that he would be his servant and king under 
him. 

At last the patience of the English people was 
quite worn out. There was at that time a very wise 
Archbishop of Canterbury, named Stephen Langton. 
He helped the barons to draw up a writing called 
the Great Charter (or Magna Charta), by which 
liberty and just laws might be secured to England, 
so that they could no more be taken away. The 
barons resolved that John should set his seal to this 
writing, or that he should be no longer king. 

John was furious; he hated just laws, and only 
wished to have power to do as he pleased. But the 
barons were stronger than he was; the citizens of 
the towns and the farmers were all on their side, and 
not ten of the chief men in England were on the side 
of John. So he was forced to promise that he would 
govern justly in future, and on the 19th of June, 
12 15, he set his seal to the Great Charter, in the 
meadow called Runnymede, which is on the banks 
of the Thames, between Staines and Windsor. The 
more we know of the history cf England, the better 
we can understand how precious a thing that charter 
was. It was the root from which free government 
and just laws grew up, and made England a great 
and happy country. 



54 Merrill's English history 

King John had no intention of keeping his prom- 
ise. He sent abroad secretly and hired soldiers, and 
when these troops landed in England he set the 
barons at defiance and began to ravage the country. 
This shameful breach of faith provoked some of them 
to offer the crown of England to Louis, the French 
king's eldest son, if he would come and help them to 
put down John. But the other barons refused to 
give the kingdom to a foreigner ; and there would, 
perhaps, have been a long civil war if the wicked 
John had not died, October 19th, 12 16. His death 
was hastened by grief for the loss of his treasure. 
Between Lynn and Lincolnshire his road lay along 
the seashore, which was overflowed at high water ; 
and the returning tide overtook his army and washed 
away all his baggage, money, and jewels. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Henry III. 
(From 1216 to 1272) 

John's eldest son, Henry, was hardly nine years 
old when his father died ; but he had a wise guardian, 
the Earl of Pembroke, who got rid of Prince Louis 
and the foreign soldiers, and restored England to 
order and peace. Unhappily, the good earl lived 
but a few years, and Henry the Third grew up to be 
a foolish man and a bad king. He was so idle that 
he hated to take any trouble ; he spent money in the 
most wasteful manner possible, and gave himself up 
to be guided by favorites, most of whom were 
foreigners. These men did not care what became 
of the country, so long as they could gain riches and 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 55 

power for themselves. If they were charged with 
breaking- the laws, " What are the English laws to 
■Qs?" was the insolent reply. 

When the king- was in want of money, he used to 
promise that he would govern better and keep the 
Great Charter faithfully ; but as soon as the people 
had given him what he wanted he forgot all his 
promises. Yet he was not wicked like his father, 
but so feeble-minded that his favorites could per- 
suade him to do anything they liked. 

After bearing with the king's follies for many 
years, the barons took all power out of his hands and 
put the kingdom in charge of twenty-four council- 
lors, with Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at 
their head. De Montfort did not govern very well, 
and after some time the king's eldest son, Prince 
Edward, a brave and able young man, overcame and 
killed the earl, and Henry was restored to power. 

When Edward had made peace between his father 
and the barons, he set out upon a crusade, as Richard 
the Lion-Hearted had done eighty years before. Like 
Richard, he gained a great name by his brave deeds ; 
but he could not win Jerusalem from the Mahometans. 
They were very much afraid of him, nevertheless, and 
tried to murder him. He was wounded by a poisoned 
dagger, and was in great danger of losing his life ; 
but after much suffering he recovered. It is said 
that Edward's wife, Eleanor of Castile, sucked the 
poison from his wound ; we do not know if this is 
true, but he always said he owed his life to her tender 
care and nursing. 

While these things were happening in Palestine, 
there was much trouble in England. Poor King 



56 Merrill's English history 

Henry did not rule more wisely than before, and as no 
one felt afraid of displeasing him, bad nilen did almost 
as mnch mischief as they chose. But the worst thing 
of all was the wickedness of the judges, who would 
take bribes to condemn the innocent and let the guilty 
go free. At last, after a long reign of fifty-six years, 
Henry the Third died, November 6th, 1272, His 
death did more than his life for the peace of the 
country; for as soon as his son Edward was pro- 
claimed king, bad men began to stand in awe of 
him, and to fear the weight of his anger even while 
he was far away. 



CHAPTER XVni 

Edward I., 1272 — Conquest of Wales, 1284 
(From 1272 to 1290) 

Edward and Eleanor returned to England in the 
summer of 1274, and were received with great rejoic- 
ing. The people gazed with admiration on the lofty 
stature and majestic countenance of the king, who 
surpassed most men in strength and activity. Unlike 
his father, Edward the First was always busy, either 
in the affairs of his kingdom and in making war or 
peace, or in manly exercises and amusements. 

England soon found the benefit of being ruled by 
so wise a head and so strong a hand. The unjust 
judges were dismissed and punished, and better men 
appointed in their stead. The country was cleared 
of the bands of robbers who, in the last reign, had 
infested every highway and committed murder at 
noonday in the streets of London. 

Edward took care to encourage trade. English 
wool, lead, and tin, were sent to foreign countries, 



MERRILLS ENGLISH HISTORY 57 

and there came in return wines and fruits, silk and 
spices, gold, silver, and cloth ; for the EnglivSh did 
not yet know how to make cloth, though they had 
abundance of wool. They had only just learned 
how to make linen, from a colony of Flemish weavers 
who had settled in England in the reign of Henry 
the Third. 

It would have been well if Edward could have 
been contented with making his own kingdom pros- 
perous and powerful ; but he had set his heart on 
adding to it Wales and Scotland, and as neither the 
Welsh nor the Scots were willing to submit to a 
foreign ruler, much misery was caused to both coun- 
tries, and Edward was led to commit terrible acts 
of injustice and cruelty. 

The people of Wales were descended from those 
ancient Britons who fled to the mountains of the west 
when their country was conquered by the Saxons. 
They had been almost always at war, first with the 
Saxons and then with the Norman kings of England, 
and were ready to fight to the last for their country; 
but they never could agree among themselves, and 
their continual quarrels rendered them so feeble 
that, under the Norman kings, the English had 
taken nearl}^ the whole of South Wales. 

When Edward the First came to the throne, the 
Prince of North Wales was Llewellyn ; but few of 
the chief men obeyed him, and, when Edward 
marched an army into Wales, Llewelhm was ill able 
to resist so powerful an enemy. After a few years 
of warfare Llewellyn was killed. His brother David 
was taken prisoner, and by Edward's orders was put 
to a shameful and cruel death. 



5o MERRILLS ENGLISH . HISTORY 

Wales was divided into counties, and strong 
castles were built at Conway and Caernarvon, and 
several other places where English troops could 
overawe the natives. The Welsh entreated that they 
might have one of their own countrymen to govern 
them ; " one," said they, " who speaks neither French 
nor English, for we do not understand these lan- 
guages." Edward promised that it should be so, 
but they were greatly disappointed when he present- 
ed to them his baby son Edward, born a few days 
before at Caernarvon Castle. " Here is a prince for 
you," said he, "born a Welshman, and who cannot 
speak one word of English or French." They dared 
not resist the king's will, so the Welsh chiefs came 
forward, kissed the hand of the infant, and promised 
to be his faithful servants. But obedience won by 
fear can never be depended on, and it was long be- 
fore the Welsh ceased to look upon the English as 
enemies, and to make war on them whenever they 
had an opportunity. 

The conquest of Wales was followed by some years 
of quietness, but during that time a great calamity 
befell the king — the loss of his good and beautiful 
wife, Eleanor. It was a loss to the whole nation, 
for Eleanor had rendered herself very dear to her 
husband's subjects. One of our oldest historians 
truly said of her: "She was a godly, modest, and 
merciful princess; a loving mother to our nation, 
the comforter of the sorrowful, and a peace-maker 
between those who were at strife. " 

At each of the places where Eleanor's corpse rested 
on its way to burial, a beautiful cross was erected to 
her memory ; two are -still standing — at Northampton 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 59 

and at Waltham. But the finest memorial is in 
Westminster Abbey, where the sculptured likeness 
of the good queen rests upon her tomb, perfect in 
serene beauty, and scarcely at all injured by time. 
Eleanor died at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, Novem- 
ber 29th, 1290. Of four sons, one only survived her 
— Edward, the young Prince of Wales. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Wars of Edward I. with Scotland 
(From 1290 to 1307) 

The remainder of Edward's life was spent chiefly 
in a vain attempt to add Scotland to his dominions. 
At first, it seemed that the two kingdomis would be 
joined by a better way than war. The King of Scots 
had died in 1287, leaving only one little granddaugh- 
ter to reign after him, and Edward had proposed 
that this little princess should be married, when old 
enough, to his son, the Prince of Wales. But the 
little girl died when only six years old, and several 
noblemen at once laid claim to the crown, as being 
related to the Scottish royal family. The Scots were 
afraid they would all go to war together, and asked 
Edward to say which of the claimants had the best 
right to reign over them. 

Edward said that he should not decide in favor of 
any one, unless the Scots would all agree to say that 
the King of England was chief lord of Scotland. He 
also said that they must put all their strongest castles 
into his hands. They did not like this at all, but 
they thought it better to do what was required than 
to run the risk of a civil war. Edward then decided 



6o ■ Merrill's English history 

that John Baliol had the best right to the throne, 
and he was crowned accordingly. 

For a little while there was peace, but Edward 
ruled Baliol with a heavy hand, and treated him as 
if he had been a private man. The Scots felt that 
they were insulted as well as their king, and they 
rose in arms. Edward was, at first, too strong for 
them ; he laid waste their best lands, took Baliol 
prisoner, and carried away all the treasures of the 
kingdom. 

He took also something which the Scots valued 
more than gold — the ancient stone on which their 
kings were seated at their coronation. There Avas 
an old superstitious saying, that the Scottish race 
would reign wherever that stone was found, and so 
they had a fear that if it did not remain in Scot- 
land, kings of their own race would no longer reign 
there. It was never restored to them, but was placed 
in the coronation chair of our English sovereigns ; 
and after some three hundred years the old saying 
was made true, for Scottish kings came to reign on 
the throne of England. 

When Edward had carried away Baliol and placed 
governors over Scotland, he thought the country was 
conquered, but it was not so. There was a brave 
gentleman, called William Wallace, who could not 
endure to see his countrymen ill-treated by Edward's 
officers. He gathered a little band of men, and by 
degrees drove Edward's forces out of nearly all the 
towns and castles. 

Unfortunately, the Scottisli nobles were mean 
enough to be jealous of this brave man because he 
was not of high birth. One after another they made 




STRUTHERS & CO. N. Y, 



62 Merrill's English history 

peace with Edward, and Wallace was left almost 
alone. Edward set a great price upon his head, and 
a man was found base enough to earn that price by 
betraying the hero into the hands of his enemies; his 
infamy was the greater, because he had been Wal- 
lace's familiar friend and companion. When Ed- 
ward's passions were roused, he forgot all noble and 
generous feelings. He caused Wallace to be mocked 
and insulted as if he had been the vilest of mankind, 
and put him to death in the same horrible man- 
ner as the Welsh prince David. Wallace endured 
all with the same calm courage ; and this cruel mur- 
der did Edward's cause no good. 

The Scots rose in arms again, and, though often 
beaten, they never left off striving for their freedom. 
Their leader now was Robert Bruce, the grandson 
of one of the noblemen who had claimed the crown 
when the little Queen of Scotland died. Bruce was 
crowned king at Scone on the 29th of March, 1306; 
but on the 19th of June following he was defeated in 
a battle near Hethven by the English Earl of Pem- 
broke. He fled with a few brave adherents into the 
Highland mountains, where they were chased from 
one place of refuge to another, and had often to fight 
for their lives. A tradition which is not improbable 
tells that, in the course of his wanderings, Bruce 
was lying one morning in a friendly peasant's hut, 
considering whether he had not better give up all 
hopes of making good his right to the Scottish 
crown, and go to the Holy Land to fight against the 
Saracens. While thus reflecting he looked up to the 
roof of the hut, and saw a spider hanging by its line 
and striving to swing from one beam to another, 



Merrill's English history 63 

in order to go on making- its web. The insect made 
the attempt ag-ain and again without success, and 
Bruce counted six times that it had done so. It oc- 
curred to him that he had fought six battles against 
the English and their allies, and, like the spider, 
had failed to gain his object. "Now," thought the 
king," if the insect makes another effort and suc- 
ceeds in fixing its thread, I will venture a seventh 
time to try my fortune in Scotland ; but if the spider 
fails again, I will go to Palestine and never return." 
The spider did try once more and reached the beam ; 
and Bruce, seeing its success, took courage and con- 
tinued the war. 

When King Edward heard that Bruce had been 
crowned at Scone, he assembled two great armies 
and sent them forward, one after the other, while 
he followed by easier journeys himself, for he was 
growing old and his great strength began to fail. 
But he was resolved never to turn back till the Scots 
were utterly crushed and Bruce was at his mercy. 
In vain, however, did the angry king strive to reach 
the Scottish border. The strong hand of death was 
upon him; and on the 7th of July, 1307, he breathed 
his last at the little village of Burgh-on-the-Sands, 
near Carlisle. He was in the sixty-ninth year of his 
age and the thirty-fifth of his reign. 

Edward the First did much for England, and has 
always been looked upon as one of its greatest kings; 
but the love of power and conquest made him merci- 
less and unjust. His wars had one good consequence 
for England: they were so expensive that he was 
obliged frequently to summon parliaments, in order 
that they might grant him money. He was the first 



64 Merrill's English history 

king" who commanded the counties and borough 
towns to elect members to Parliament. All the 
kings who had reigned since the Norman conquest 
had summoned only barons and men of rank; but 
from the time of Edward the First there were com- 
mons as well as lords in the English Parliament; 
and it has not been lawful for the king to tax his 
subjects without their consent. 



CHAPTER XX 

Edward II, 1307 — Bannockburn, 1314 — Edward III, 1327 — 
Queen Philippa and the Black Prince — Battle of Crecy, 1346 
(From 1307 to 1346) 

Edward the Second was twenty-three years of 
age when he succeeded his father. He was a very 
different man from Edward the First, but there is 
little to be said in his favor except that he was not 
cruel and not wanting in courage. He was one of 
the most unwise kings that ever sat on the English 
throne, and came at last to the most miserable end; 
and all this evil and misery was chiefly owing to his 
bad choice of friends and advisers. Instead of taking 
counsel with the men who had served his father, the 
young king surrounded himself with idle com- 
panions, and wasted in feasts and diversions the 
money which his subjects gave him for the expenses 
of the government. 

The barons were so displeased at the king's mis- 
conduct that they took up arms against him more 
than once ; and all his favorites came, sooner or later, 
to a violent death. But the king's worst enemy v\^as 
his wife, the Princess Isabella of France; she was 
a talented and beautiful woman, but very wicked. 



Merrill's English history 65 

She was angry that Edward preferred to spend his 
time and money with his favorites rather than with 
herself ; and in revenge she stirred up the people to 
take away the crown from him and give it to his son, 
a boy of fourteen. Some months afterward, the 
nnhappy king was cruelly murdered at Berkeley 
Castle, in Gloucestershire, September 21st, 1327. 

Other miseries beside those of civil war marked 
the reign of Edward the Second. In 13 14, he led an 
army of one hundred thousand men into Scotland, 
met Bruce at the head of a small force at Bannock- 
burn, near Stirling, and was utterly routed. Thirty 
thousand raen, the pride and flower of the English 
army, were left dead on that fatal field, and Edward 
was forced to fly for his life. This terrible defeat 
was followed by a famine which lasted three years 
and caused the death of a multitude of people. 

For three years after his father's death, Edward 
had no part in the government of the kingdom. His 
mother Isabella had taken for her chief friend and 
counsellor a wicked nobleman, named Mortimer, 
with whom she ruled as she chose. But as the young 
king grew up, he learned by degrees how much evil 
his mother and Mortimer had committed and how 
badly they were governing England. He became 
impatient of their control, and when he was eighteen 
years old he caused Mortimer to be put to death for 
his crimes, and imprisoned Queen Isabella for the 
remainder of her life. From that time Edward had 
the authority as well as the name of king. 

He was as wise as his grandfather, the first Ed- 
ward, and far more just and merciful. While yet a 
boy, he had made a campaign against the vScots and 



66 Merrill's English history 

had shown himself a good soldier, and when he be- 
came a man his" reign was made famous by great 
victories. But it is famous for better things : Eng- 
land became wiser, freer, and happier. During 
forty years there was peace at home and honor 
abroad. There were excellent judges, and the laws 
were made more just for every man. 

The wealth of the people grew with their industry, 
and one useful thing which they learned at this 
time was the art of making woollen cloth. The king 
had married a young Flemish lady, Philippa of 
Hainault. Her countrymen were noted for the ex- 
cellent cloth which they wove from English wool. 
Edward invited some of the best weavers to settle in 
England and teach his subjects, and the queen took 
pains to encourage them to learn, so that it was not 
very long before the cloth made in England became 
as famous as that of Flanders. 

This good Queen Philippa was one of the greatest 
blessings of Edward's reign; and her eldest son, Ed- 
ward, Prince of Wales (generally called the Black 
Prince, because he wore black armor), was good like 
her. He was wise also, and brave like his father, 
and there is no name in English history more famous 
and more beloved than his. 

The Black Prince was hardly sixteen when he won 
his first great victory, August 26th, 1346. King Ed- 
ward had invaded France, and was overtaken by the 
French king, Philip the Sixth, at Crecy, near Abbe- 
ville. Philip had a very large army, Edward had 
but a few thousand men ; but there v/as a body of 
archers among them, and in those days no foot sol- 
diers in any army could compare with the English 



Merrill's English history 67 

archers. The English boys, from the time they were 
six or seven years old, were taught to use the bow 
and arrow ; in every village archery was the favorite 
exercise, and more than one famous battle was 
mainly gained by the skill of the bowmen. Men did 
not yet know the use of guns, and the first cannon 
that we read of were two used by Edward at Crecy ; 
but they were clumsy things and seem to have been 
of little service, as we hear of no more for a long 
time aftervv^ard. 

When the king had set his army in order, he re- 
tired and left the command to his son, saying that 
he should have all the honor of that day. The fight 
began by the archers letting fly their arrows, which 
fell as thick and fast as the flakes in a snow-storm, 
pierced through the armor of the Frenchmen, and 
threw them into great confusion. Then the young 
prince and his companions, making up in valor what 
they wanted in numbers, charged them so fiercely 
that their ranks were utterly broken and they fled in 
all directions. 

The French lost many thousand men ; of the Eng- 
lish very few were killed; and when it was told at 
home how thirty thousand men had beaten one hun- 
dred thousand, all the people exulted greatly, and 
thought that with such a prince to lead them Eng- 
lishmen need not fear the whole world. 



6S Merrill's English history 



CHAPTER XXI 

Victory of Poitiers, 1356 — Great Deeds of the Black Prince — 
His Death, 1376 — Death of the King, 1377 

(From 1356 to 1377) 

Ten years afterward there was another great battle 
like that of Crecy; but this time the Black Prince 
was alone, King Edward being in England. The 
French king, Philip, was dead, and his son, John the 
Second, had succeeded him. King John marched 
against the prince at the head of sixty thousand 
men, among whom were all the royal princes and 
the bravest noblemen of France. 

The Black Prince, with a little army of eight 
thousand men, was on the way to his father's own 
province of Gascony, when King John came up with 
him in the high grounds south of Poitiers. When 
the prince found he must encounter this great host 
with his little company, he was not at all intimidated ; 
he only said, " God is my help ; I must fight them as 
best I can." He gained a wonderful victory, taking 
the King of France and a great number of his men 
prisoners. 

King John was greatly cast down at his defeat; 
but the prince, who was as modest and generous as 
he was brave, did everything he could to cheer him. 
He reminded him of the many brave deeds he had 
performed before he was taken prisoner. He would 
not sit down to table with him, but waited upon him 
with as much respect as if John had been his father ; 
and when he returned to England, instead of trying 
to look like a conqueror bringing his captive in tri- 
umph, he made the French king ride in the place of 



Merrill's English history 6q 

honor, mounted on a beautiful white charger, while 
he rode at his side on a little black pony But he 
could not hide his noble deeds, and men valued them 
all the more because he seemed to think so little of 
them. 

This war, however, in which such great victories 
were won, was a very unjust one. The three French 
kings who reigned before Philip the Sixth were King 
Edward's uncles; none of them left any sons, and 
when the last of the three died Edward said that he 
ought to be King of France now. But the French 
chose Philip, who had a better right according to 
their laws, though he was not so nearlv related to 
the royal family of France as the Englisn king was. 
Edward then began this war, which lasted thirty 
years, and brought immense misery on the people of 
France, whose towns were ruined, and the land laid 
waste with perpetual marching and countermarching 
of armies, sieges, and battles. As for the English, 
they were so proud of Edward's victories that they 
willingly gave him all the money he required for the 
expenses of the war, and joined eagerly in every 
scheme for conquering France. 

The Black Prince did conquer a large portion of 
the country, and ruled in the southwest with kingly 
state, keeping his court at Bordeaux. Unhappily, 
he was prevailed on to assist a king of Castile, called 
Pedro the Cruel, who had been driven away by his 
own subjects. The prince marched into Spain, won 
another great victory, and replaced Pedro on the 
throne ; but the wicked king showed his gratitude by 
trying to poison his benefactor and starving the Eng- 
lish troops. The Black Prince never recovered from 



7° MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

the fatigues and miseries of that campaign ; wasted 
with sickness, he returned at length to his native 
land, where sad changes had taken place. 

The good Queen Philippa was dead, and Edward 
the Third was no longer honored and beloved as he 
had been. He had given himself up to the guidance 
of bad men and women, who tried to make him act 
contrary to the laws for their own selfish ends. The 
prince fought one more battle for England — not in 
the field, but in Parliament. He was carried thither 
from his dying bed, that he might help to overthrow 
the wicked plans of his father's evil counsellors and 
support the men who were upholding the laws. A few 
weeks afterward, on the 8th of June, 1376, he breathed 
his last ; and the nation mourned for him as if every 
family had lost a son or a brother. He was gone 
who had been wisest in council and bravest in bat- 
tle; and who could fill his place? 

King Edward lived but one year after his son's 
death. He ended his days very sadly ; none of his 
own family were near him, and the unworthy favorites 
in whom he trusted robbed him of everything in his 
last moments, and left him to die alone (21st of 
June, 1377). He was sixty-four years old, and had 
reigned fifty 5^ears. 



CHAPTER XXH 

Some of the Memorable Events and Great Men of the Time of 

Edward III 

There are several things to be remembered about 
the reign of Edward the Third beside those which 
have been mentioned already, and beside a list of 
battles and victories too long to be recounted here. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 71 

One is the taking of Calais, which the English kept 
for more than two hundred years, and valued highly 
as a key by which they could enter France when 
they chose. 

Edward laid siege to Calais immediately after the 
battle of Crecy. The people defended themselves 
bravely as long as there was any food in the city; 
but at the end of eleven months, when all was gone, 
and they had eaten even the dogs and rats, and were 
ready to die with hunger, they were obliged to open 
their gates to the English troops. 

The king was very angry that he had been kept so 
long before Calais, and declared that he would have 
no mercy on the inhabitants unless six of the chief 
citizens offered themselves to die for the rest. This 
terrible sentence filled the city with fear and lamen- 
tation, but soon the richest and most honorable of 
the townsmen, Eustace de St. Pierre, came forward 
and bade them grieve no more. " I will die for you 
willingly," said he; and as soon as Eustace had done 
speaking, his own son, and four others of the chief 
men, said that they too would die with him. So 
these six men went out to the English camp, bare- 
footed, with halters round their necks. Every one 
mourned for them ; Edward's own officers entreated 
him to spare them, but he would listen to no one till 
Queen Philippa came into the tent. She had just 
come from England to visit her husband ; and now, 
kneeling before him, she besought so earnestly that 
he would not put these good men to death, that at 
last he said, " Dame, I can deny you nothing, but I 
wish you had not been here." Then he gave tip the 
six men of Calais to her, to do what she pleased with 



72 MERRILL, S ENGLISH HISTORY 

them; and Philippa gave them food and presents, 
and sent them away in peace. 

While Edward was besieging Calais, Queen Phil- 
ippa gained a great victory over the Scots. The 
French had persuaded them to invade England, and 
they advanced as far as York. But the queen 
hastened to the north and sent an army against them, 
by which they were utterly routed at Neville's Cross, 
near Durham, and their king, David the Second, was 
taken prisoner (October 12th, 1346). 

A very few years after these events, one of the 
most dreadful plagues ever known ravaged England 
and all Europe. It was called the Black Death. 
Having first carried off many millions of people in 
Asia, it appeared, at the end of 1347, in the south of 
Italy and thence spread gradually northwards, des- 
troying in its progress one-quarter of the whole 
population of Europe. 

In the reign of Edward the Third the first great 
English writers appeared — the poets Chaucer and 
Gower and the famous John Wicliff (or Wickliff e) , 
who translated the Scriptures into English, and did 
more than any other man to spread the knowledge 
of them among his countrymen. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Richard II 
(From 1377 to 1399) 

Edward the Third was succeeded by his grandson 
Richard, the only child of the Black Prince. He re- 
sembled his father in beauty of countenance, and the 
people hoped that he would resemble him in charac- 



MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 73 

ter ; but they were grievously disappointed. Richard 
the Second was only ten years old when he came to 
the throne; he was badly trained by the flattering 
friends who were about him, and when he became a 
man he showed himself so fond of vain shovv^ and 
amusement, and so foolishly prodigal of money, that 
he soon lost the affection of his subjects. 

He had given promise of better things in his boy- 
hood. When he was only fifteen, a formidable re- 
bellion broke out among the laborers, who had been 
sorely oppressed by their masters, and now an unjust 
tax was added to their other grievances. Sixty 
thousand of them, under the leadership of a man 
named Wat Tyler, marched to London, murdered 
some of the king's councillors, and threw the whole 
city into consternation. 

Richard, attended only by sixty persons, met Wat 
Tyler with several thousand rioters in Smithfield. 
The young king invited the rebels to state their 
grievances, and Tyler began to speak ; but he played 
all the while with his sword, and William Walworth, 
Lord Mayor of London, fearing that he would attack 
the king, struck him to the ground. When the 
multitude saw their leader fall, loud, angry cries were 
heard among them, and they bent their bows to 
avenge his death; but Richard, with great presence 
of mind, rode boldly up to them. "Are ye angry," 
said he, " that you have lost your leader? Follow 
me, and I will be your leader. This Tyler was but 
a rebel." The rioters were delighted with his frank, 
fearless manner ; they followed him willingly, and 
Richard led them out of the city. Then he per- 
suaded them to return peaceably to their homes, and 



74 Merrill's English history 

promised them that their wrongs should be redressed. 
But the king's councillors refused to keep the prom- 
ise he had made, and put many hundreds of these 
unhappy people to death after the rebellion was over. 

Until Richard was twenty-two years of age, his 
uncle Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, kept the power as 
much as possible in his own hands. After that time 
the king refused to be any longer under control. 
He arrested Gloucester, who died in prison ; and, as 
it was generally believed that Richard had ordered 
him to be put to death, the king was more disliked 
than ever. 

He had still two uncles living — John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancaster, and Edmund, Duke of York. 
The son of the Duke of Lancaster was called Henry 
of Bolingbroke; he was an able man, and so great a 
favorite with the people that the king was very 
jealous of him. When a quarrel arose between Bo- 
lingbroke and another nobleman, Richard took ad- 
vantage of it to banish his cousin for some years. 
While Bolingbroke was still in exile his father died, 
and Richard most unjustly took possession of his 
uncle's estates, though he had promised his cousin 
that he would not meddle with his inheritance. 

Bolingbroke, who was now become Duke of Lan- 
caster, at once returned to England, saying that he 
had only come to recover his father's lands; but 
what he reall)^ aimed at was the crown, and he soon 
obtained it. Almost every one forsook Richard. 
He was shut up in Pontefract Castle, and it was never 
certainly known what became of him. Some said 
that he had been starved or put to death by violence 
in his prison ; others believed that he had escaped to 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 



75 



Scotland and died years afterward, a poor insane 
man, having lost his reason through grief at his 
terrible downfall. He had been king twenty-two 
years. During the early part of his reign his uncles 
carried on the war with France, but so unsuccessfully 
that the English lost almost every town which Ed- 
ward the Third and the Black Prince had taken. 

In the border counties of England there was con- 
stant fighting between the English and Scots. Earl 
Douglas led the Scots, and Lord Henry Percy, who 
was of so daring and fiery a spirit that he was sur- 
named Hotspur, was the leader of the Engliish. 



CHAPTER XXIV , 

Henry IV, 1399 — Henry V, 1413 — Victory of Agincourt, 1415 
(From 1399 to 1422) 

Henry, Duke of Lancaster, had ascended the throne 
with the consent of the Parliament, but he was not 
the nearest heir after Richard the Second. There 
was a little boy, called Edmund Mortimer, Earl of 
March, who was descended from an elder brother of 
Henry's father; but Mortimer was so young that he 
could do nothing to assert his claim to the crown. 
His cause was taken up by some of the chief men in 
the kingdom, and in particular by the three Percys — 
Hotspur, and his father and uncle, the Earls of 
Northumberland and Worcester. But they were all 
overthrown, and perished either in battle or by the 
hands of the executioner. 

In his contest with these noblemen, the king was 
greatly assisted by his eldest son. Prince Henry, a 
young man of great courage and capacity, and of a 



76 Merrill's English history 

most noble and generous disposition. But the young 
prince made a strange choice of companions, and 
sometimes indulged with them in frolics which were 
quite unsuitable to his rank and unworthy of his 
noble character. One of his companions was carried 
before Chief Justice Gascoyne for making a riot in 
the streets at midnight. The judge sent him to 
prison. Prince Henry went to the chief justice and 
desired him to release his friend, and when he re- 
fused to do so the angry prince drew his sword upon 
him. For this flagrant breach of the laws, Judge 
Gascoyne ordered Prince Henry himself to prison, and 
the prince was so sensible that he had done wrong 
that he submitted without a murmur. When his 
father heard what had happened, he exclaimed, 
" Happy am I to have a judge who dares punish such 
an offender, and still happier that I have a son who 
is willing to submit to just punishment !" It is prob- 
able, however, that the stories of Prince Henry's bad 
habits, though not without foundation, are much 
exaggerated. 

Henry the Fourth died March 20th, 1413; and as 
soon as Prince Henry became king he bent all his 
thoughts to the task of governing his kingdom well. 
He withdrew from his former wild companions, and 
forbade them to come into his presence till they 
should have entirely reformed their lives; but he 
treated the upright Judge Gascoyne and other wise 
and good men with the utmost honor. He was a 
good king; but, unhappily, he was fond of war and 
conquest, and could not be contented with governing 
his own people well. 

He renewed the war with France, and gained such 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 77 

astonishing successes that it seemed as if the days of 
the Black Prince were come again. Henry's greatest 
victory was at Agincourt (October, 141 5). He was 
on his way from Harfleur to Calais with about 
twelve thousand men, many of whom were weak and 
weary for want of food, when he encountered a very 
large army of Frenchmen. They felt so sure of their 
victory over the tired, half-starved English that they 
settled beforehand how much ransom they would ask 
for King Henry and his chief officers. But the Eng- 
lishmen remembered Crecy and Poitiers, and fought 
as their fathers had done. The great French army 
was beaten with terrible slaughter; the English did 
not lose many men. 

Within a few years after the battle of Agincourt, 
Henry possessed himself of a large portion of France, 
and concluded a treaty with the king, Charles the 
Sixth, by which it was agreed that Charles should 
give his daughter Katharine in marriage to Henry, 
and that Henry should be King of France after him 
instead of his own son. But in the midst of his 
triumphs Henry was^ attacked by a fatal illness, and 
died at Vincennes, in France, on the 31st of August, 
1422, aged ^^. He was deeply lamented by the 
people of England. 

Henry the Fifth was the first kin^, since the battle 
of Hastings who had built ships of his own to guard 
the coasts. They were very much needed, for the 
seas were so infested with pirates that Henry the 
Fourth was very near being seized and carried off at 
the mouth of the Thames. 

After the death of Henry the Fifth, his widow, 
Katharine of France, married a Welsh gentleman. 



jS Merrill's English history 

named Owen Tudor; and the descendants of this 
marriage afterward became kings of England. 



CHAPTER XXV 

Henry VI, 1422 — War with France — Joan of Arc 
(From 1422 to 1449) 

Henry the Fifth left one son, an infant of eight 
months old, who, while still in the cradle, was pro- 
claimed King both of France and England. 

It would have been happier for the little Henry the 
Sixth if he had been the son of a private man ; he 
grew up good and gentle, but quite unfit to command 
an army, or to rule a kingdom, and his reign was one 
of the most troublous periods in English history. 
During the first years of his life, everything seemed 
prosperous ; his uncles ruled for him — John, Duke of 
Bedford, in France, and Humphrey, Duke of Glouces- 
ter, in England. But they had an uncle, the Cardi- 
nal Beaufort, between whom and Duke Humphrey 
there arose many quarrels, and the Duke of Bed- 
ford was often obliged to make peace between them. 

At this time all France north of the river Loire 
owned Henry the Sixth for king ; but the provinces 
south of the Loire looked upon Charles the Seventh, 
the son of the last king, as their sovereign. The 
Duke of Bedford resolved to bring these provinces 
also imder the English rule. He began by laying 
siege to Orleans, an important city on the banks of 
the Loire ; and, as Charles the Seventh took little 
pains to relieve it, it seemed that Orleans and all the 
territory on the south would soon be in the hands of 
the English. 



i 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 79 

But a new and wonderful champion now appeared 
on the side of France. This was a peasant girl, 
called Joan of Arc, who was but eighteen years old, 
and had been distinguished from her village com- 
panions only by her piety and goodness. But Joan 
loved her country, and, musing upon the misery 
which the war had brought upon it, believed that she 
heard voices from heaven bidding her go and place 
herself at the head of the French army, drive back 
the English, and conduct her rightful king, Charles 
the Seventh, to Rheims, there to be crowned as his 
forefathers had been. At first no one would listen 
to Joan when she told them what the voices said; 
but she was quite sure herself of the truth of her 
story, and after a time other people began to be- 
lieve it. 

She was now brought before Charles, who gave 
her a suit of armor, a horse, and a little band of 
soldiers, with whom she made her way to Orleans. 
In less than three months, Joan forced the English 
to raise the siege of the city, gained a great battle 
over them, in which she captured their most famous 
commander, Lord Talbot, and conducted Charles to 
Rheims, where he was solemnly crowned king of 
France. Joan's work was now done, and she wanted 
to go back to her parents and her village home ; but 
Charles and his officers desired that she would re- 
main and give them yet more help. 

Poor Joan could not refuse; but a sad fate awaited 
her. She was made prisoner by some men of Bur- 
gundy who were in league with the English, and by 
them given up to the Duke of Bedford. He was not, 
.in general, a cruel man, but he had persuaded him- 



8o MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

self that Joan's wonderful successes were owing to 
witchcraft, and he sent her before a tribunal com- 
posed of French and English bishops and priests, to 
be tried for sorcery. She was kept in prison for 
many months, and cruelly treated by her judges; 
but her patience never failed, and she continued to 
the last to declare that heavenly voices had com- 
manded her to go to the help of her country and her 
lawful king. 

All this while Charles the Seventh, for whom Joan 
had done so much, made not the least effort to rescue 
her from the unrighteous judges into whose hands 
she had fallen. They condemned her to be burned 
to death as a witch, and then, for a very little while, 
poor Joan's fortitude did fail her; she burst into 
tears, and said she would rather lose her head seven 
times over than be burned. But she soon became 
as brave and calm as ever, and went patiently to her 
cruel death, with words of prayer for herself and of 
forgiveness for her enemies. She suffered on the 
30th of May, 143 1 — little more than two years from 
the day on which she had driven back the English 
from the walls of Orleans. 

The barbarous murder of poor Joan did not bring 
any success to the English arms. The war lasted 
yet many years, but the English lost by degrees all 
their possessions in France except Calais. In the 
meantime the Duke of Bedford died, and England 
began to be much disturbed by the disputes between 
the Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort. The 
king could do nothing to restrain them ; he had be- 
come a man in years, but his mind was feeble as a 
child's. At last, the cardinal and his friends pro-. 



Merrill's English history 8i 

cured that Gloucester should be imprisoned, and a 
few days afterward he was found dead in his bed. 
Beaufort was accused of having murdered him, but 
no one could prove it, and he died himself a few 
weeks later. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

War of the Roses — Henry VI Dethroned, 1461 
(From 1449 to 1461) 

Now that the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester 
were dead, the nobleman most nearly related to the 
royal family was Richard, Duke of York. He was 
the nephew of that Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, 
of whom we read in the reign of Henry the Fourth. 
Mortimer had no children, so that his nephew in- 
herited his claim to the throne, but he had not yet 
shown any desire to displace King Henry. Unfor- 
tunately, Henry, who was so gentle and harmless 
himself, had married a very haughty, high-spirited 
princess, Margaret of Anjou. She ruled her husband 
entirely, and having taken Beaufort, Duke of Somer- 
set, for her chief counsellor, she managed the govern- 
ment with his help in such a way as to give great 
offence to the Duke of York and his friends. 

In 1453, the king became for a time quite insane; 
then Somerset was imprisoned, and the Parliament 
placed the government in the hands of York, who 
was called Protector of the kingdom. But as soon 
as the king recovered his reason Somerset was set at 
liberty, and the Duke of York was so deeply offended 
that he took up arms. Now began one of the most 
dreadful wars which ever raged in England. It is 



82 Merrill's English history 

called the War of the Roses, because the friends of 
York took a white rose for their badge, and the 
friends of King Henry a red one. As Henry the 
Sixth was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of 
Lancaster, the men of his party were called Lancas- 
trians; the Duke of York's men were called Yorkists. 

The first battle in this terrible war was fought at 
St. Alban's, in May, 1455. Somerset was killed in 
this action, and a few years of peace followed his 
death; but in September, 1459, the war broke out 
again, and in the following 3^ear th^- -t^ing was made 
prisoner, and Queen Margaret was obliged to fly to 
Scotland. It was now settled that Henry should 
continue to be king as long as he lived, but that the 
Duke of York and his children should inherit the 
crown, and not Henry's own son. 

Queen Margaret could not patiently bear that her 
child should be deprived of his father's throne; she 
came back from Scotland, gathered an army, and 
marched against the Yorkists. In the battle which 
followed, the Duke of York was slain, his second son 
m.urdered in cold blood when the fight was over, 
and several noblemen who had been taken by the 
queen's party were put to death as traitors. A few 
weeks afterward, the duke's eldest son, Edward, took 
heavy revenge for these things. In a great battle 
at Mortimer's Cross, near Leominster, he defeated 
the Lancastrians, and put to death all the chief men 
who were taken prisoners. This frightful bloodshed 
continued on both sides during all the War of the 
Roses, until every noble family in England had seen 
fathers and sons and brothers fall on the field of 
battle or by the hand of the executioner. 



Merrill's English history ^s 

Edward entered London after his victory at Mor- 
timer's Cross, and was joyfully received by the 
citizens, who were almost all friendly to the house 
of York. On the 4th of March, 1461, he was pro- 
claimed king. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Edward IV 
(From 1461 to 1483) 

Edward the Fourth was no sooner made king 
than he was obliged to prepare for another encounter 
with Queen Margaret's forces. AtTowton, in York- 
shire, he overthrew them with terrible slaughter; 
twenty-eight thousand Lancastrians were left dead on 
the field of battle. Margaret, with her husband and 
their little son, found refuge in Scotland; but at the 
end of a few years she returned again, bringing some 
French and Scottish troops with her. Once more the 
Lancastrians rose in arms, but only to be again de- 
feated. Their party now seemed quite crushed. 
The queen fled with her son to France; King Henry 
remained in concealment in the north of England ; 
but a treacherous monk betrayed his retreat to the 
Yorkists, and after enduring much insulting treat- 
ment he was shut up in the Tower of London. 

Hitherto Edward had been entirely successful. 
His cause had been supported by the most powerful 
nobleman in England, Neville, Earl of Warwick, who 
had so many friends and vassals that thirty thousand 
persons were daily fed at his cost in the various 
manors and castles which belonged to him. But 
King Edward began to offend his friends now. He 



84 Merrill's English history 

had married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Sir 
John Grey, a Lancastrian knight, and he heaped 
honors and gifts upon his wife's relatives till every 
one else became jealous of them. 

His own brother George, Duke of Clarence, was 
particularly indignant at the favors conferred upon 
the Woodvilles. George had married the eldest 
daughter of the Earl of Warwick; and when War- 
wick, in 1470, received great offence from Edward 
and determined to dethrone him, he hoped that he 
should be made king in his brother's stead. But 
Warwick intended to restore Henry the Sixth, and 
gave his youngest daughter in marriage to Henry's 
son. Warwick was called "the king-maker," for he 
was so beloved and so powerful that whichever 
prince he favored seemed sure to prevail. 

Edward was now obliged to fly from the kingdom, 
and Henry was brought out of the Tower, and once 
more shown to the people as their sovereign (Octo- 
ber, 1470). But this change of kings lasted a very 
little while ; Edward returned by stealth to England, 
and Clarence, who hated Warwick now, because he 
had not given him the crown, took revenge by desert- 
ing to his brother and assisting him to raise an army. 
The forces of the White and the Red Rose met at 
Barnet on Easter-day, 147 1, and in the dreadful 
battle which followed, Warwick, "the king-maker," 
was slain and the Lancastrians totally routed. 

Queen Margaret had been raising troops in France 
to assist her friends, but contrary winds would not 
suffer them to sail ; and when at last she ventured to 
embark she was kept tossing about the Channel for 
sixteen days. She landed at Weym.outh but a few 



Merrill's English history 85 

hours before the fatal battle of Barnet, which was the 
ruin of her husband's cause. When she heard of 
the death of Warwick and the defeat of her friends, 
she would fain have returned to France with her son, 
to wait till better times might come; but some Lan- 
castrian noblemen who had escaped from Barnet 
raised a force in the western counties, and persuaded 
her to encounter Edward once more. They met at 
Tewkesbury, May 4th, 147 1, and the Lancastrians 
were totally defeated. Margaret and her son were 
taken prisoners; and the prince, who was a brave 
and accomplished youth in his eighteenth year, is 
said to have been barbarously murdered in Edward's 
presence after the battle. 

Poor King Henry had been again shut up in the 
Tower, and was put to death there, a few weeks 
after the battle of Tewkesbury. Queen Margaret 
was imprisoned for some years, and then allowed to 
retire to France, where she wore out the sad re- 
mainder of her days in deep distress. 

Edward the Fourth had now triumphed over all 
his enemies. During the rest of his life he gave 
himself up to every kind of vicious indulgence, and 
to this he joined extreme cruelty. Among those 
whom he put to death at this time was his brother, 
the Duke of Clarence. Some of Clarence's friends 
had been most unjustly executed, and, when he ex- 
pressed his indignation at the treatment they had 
met with, he was accused of being a traitor and 
condemned to die. It is said that he was drowned 
in a butt of Malmsey wine in the Tower. 

Only one brother now remained to Edward, 
Richard Duke of Gloucester. The excesses of the 



86 Merrill's English history 

king ruined his health ; he died at the age of forty- 
two, April 9th, 1483, leaving two young sons and 
several daughters. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

Edward V, 1483— Richard III, 1483— The First English 

Printer 

(From 1483 to 1485) 

Edward the Fifth was about thirteen years old 
when his father died. He had been placed under 
the care of his mother's relatives, and was residing 
with them at Ludlow Castle and keeping court as 
Prince of Wales, when his father's death occasioned 
his being called to London. On the way thither he 
was met by his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, who 
took him away from his mother's friends and sent 
them to prison. 

Gloucester brought the young king to London and 
placed him in the royal apartments at the Tower — 
for in those days, and for a long while afterward, the 
Tower was both a palace and a prison. But the 
poor boy was not permitted to see his mother. She 
was so much afraid that some harm would happen to 
her children that she had taken refuge with her 
youngest son, Richard, and his sisters, in the abbey 
of Westminster. Some religious houses, of which 
the abbey was one, had the privilege of affording 
refuge, or "sanctuary," as it was called, to persons 
in danger, and no one, not even the king, might 
force them to come out. 

Gloucester desired that the young Prince Richard 
might be Bent to the Tower, to keep his brother com- 



Merrill's English history 87 

pany, and his mother, much as she feared Gloucester, 
permitted him to go. She never saw either of her 
boys again. Preparations had been making for the 
coronation of the young king all this time, but 
Gloucester secretly employed persons to go about and 
persuade the people that his nephew had no right to 
the throne. He said that Edward the Fourth was 
really married to another lady, though he pretended 
not to be so, that he might make Elizabeth Wood- 
ville his queen; and most men were too much afraid 
of Gloucester to say that they did not believe this 
story, for he had already put to death several of the 
noblemen who were most attached to his brother's 
family, on a false charge of treason. 

So, on the 24th of June, 1483, it was declared that 
the children of Edward the Fourth could not lawfully 
inherit the crown ; and the Duke of Gloucester was 
proclaimed king by the title of Richard the Third. 
A few months later, it was given out that the 
little princes had died in the Tower; but no one 
knew certainly what had become of them till long 
afterw^ard. In the next reign, two men said that 
they had been ordered to murder the poor boys, and 
that they had smothered them one night in their 
sleep ; and, two hundred years afterward, a chest con- 
taining the bones of two children was found buried 
under one of the staircases in the Tower. These 
were supposed to be the remains of the unfortunate 
little King Edward the Fifth and his brother. 

The reign of Richard the Third lasted little more 
than two years. In that time several good laws were 
made, and had he not gained the crown by wicked 
means Richard would have been thought a good 



88 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

king-. But he had few friends even among the men 
who served him. 

A few months after his coronation, the Duke of 
Buckingham, who had greatly helped him to obtain 
the throne, raised a revolt against him in the western 
counties. It came to nothing, because the Severn, 
swollen by heavy rains, flooded all the neighboring 
country, and the duke's troops could not march. 
Buckingham himself was betrayed into Richard's 
power by an old servant and was beheaded. 

But a more formidable enemy was at hand — Henry 
Tudor, Earl of Richmond. He was the grandson of 
that Owen Tudor whom Katharine of France marriea 
after the death of her first husband. King Henry the 
Fifth; and on his mother's side he was descended 
from John of Gaunt, the father of Henry the Fourth. 

During the War of the Roses, all the Lancastrian 
princes had been cut off, and such of their friends as 
were still living looked upon Henry Tudor as the 
head of their party. He had made friends among 
the Yorkists also by promising to marry Elizabeth, 
the eldest daughter of Edward the Fourth. One of 
his chief adherents was the Yorkist Lord Stanley, 
who was also his step-father. But Stanley was one 
of Richard's chief officers, and he dissembled his at- 
tachment to his step-son until he could safely throw 
off the mask. 

In August, 1485, Richmond landed in Wales. 
The Welsh were almost all friendly to him, because 
he came of a Welsh family ; and he advanced with- 
out meeting any opposition as far as Bosworth in 
Leicestershire. There he encountered Richard, and 
on the 2 2d of August, 1485, was fought the last 



Merrill's English history 89 

battle of the War of the Roses. In the midst of the 
action, Lord Stanley decided the fortune of the day 
by going- over with all his forces to Richmond. 
Richard saw that all was lost, and, plunging- into the 
thickest of the fight, he presently fell covered with 
wounds. The crown, which he had worn above his 
helmet, was found in a hawthorn -bush and carried 
to Stanley, who placed it on the head of Richmond 
and proclaimed him king on the battle-field, by the 
title of Henry the Seventh. 

Richard the Third was the last of the Plantagenet 
kings who had ruled over England since the acces- 
sion of Henry the Second in 11 54 — a period of three 
hundred and thirty-one years. During that time the 
nation had made great advances in power, wealth, 
and freedom ; and even while the country was suffer- 
ing from the War of the Roses, England was thought 
happy beyond other kingdoms of Europe, because 
the king could not impose taxes or make laws with- 
out the consent of Parliament. In France, and 
several other great and powerful states, the king 
made laws without the consent of the people ; and 
they were forced to obey them. 



During the last two or three reigns, the English 
had begun to pay more attention to learning. For a 
long while it had been left entirely to the clergy, 
and many a great baron had not been able so much 
as to sign his name ; but now some of the chief men 
in the country took pleasure in studying. At this 
time, too, printing was first practised in England. 
It was invented about the year 1450 by a German 
named Gutenberg. William Caxton was the first 



go MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Englishman who learned the art, and the first print- 
ing-press was set up by him in the abbey of West- 
minster, in the reign of Edward the Fourth. Caxton 
worked hard for nearly twenty years, printing his- 
tories of knights and heroes. Scripture stories and 
various religious books ; but he was not allowed to 
print an English Bible. For a long time yet the 
English Bible could only be had in written copies, 
and these were so dear that it would have taken all 
the wages of a laboring man for one year to enable 
him to purchase the New Testament alone. Even 
those persons who possessed a copy of the Bible in 
English, and were able to read it, ran great risk of 
being punished as heretics; for the clergy had for- 
bidden any one to read Wicliff 's translation of the 
Scriptures. 

CHAPTER XXIX 

Henry VII., 1485 — Lambert Simnel, 1487 — Perkin Warbeck, 

1492 

(From 1485 to 1502) 

Two months after the battle cf Bosworth, Henry 
Tudor was crowned king, and in the January follow- 
ing he married the Princess Elizabeth of York. The 
Red and White Roses were thus united, and the 
country began to be at peace. But the Yorkists 
were by no means contented with Henry's govern- 
ment, and more than one revolt w^as raised against 
him. 

There still lived a prince of the royal house of 
York, Edward, Earl cf Warwick, the son of that un- 
happy Duke of Clarence who had been put to death 
by his brother, King Edward the Fourth. Henry 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 91 

was SO afraid that the Yorkists would try to set War- 
wick on the throne that he kept him in close confine- 
ment ; and the poor boy, shut up in the Tower, with- 
out teachers, companions, or amusements, grew up 
almost an idiot. When he was about seventeen a 
handsome youth who was far from being an idiot 
landed in Ireland, calling himself the Earl of War- 
wick. He was accompanied by a small body of fol- 
lowers, who gave out that he was the true son of 
Clarence and the rightful King of England. 

The Irish, who had been much attached to the 
House of York, readily believed the fable, proclaimed 
the young pretender by the title of Edward the 
Sixth, and flocked to his standard. Margaret, Duch- 
ess of Burgundy, the sister of Edward the Fourth, 
was also deceived or feigned to be so ; she declared 
herself satisfied that the youth was her nephew, and 
sent over two thousand men to fight for him. His 
real name was Lambert Simnel, and he was the son 
of a baker at Oxford. 

Finding himself at the head of a considerable body 
of Irishmen, beside the foreigners sent by the Duch- 
ess Margaret, Simnel now ventured to encounter 
King Henry. He landed in Lancashire, and marched 
to Nottingham without finding any one to check his 
advance, but no one joined him ; for the king had 
caused the real Earl of Warwick to be taken out of 
the Tower and led on horseback through the streets 
of London, that all men might know Simnel to be 
an impostor. At Stoke, near Newark, the troops of 
the pretender were met by the king's army, and 
overthrown with great slaughter. Simnel was made 
prisoner and brought before the king; and Henry, 



92 Merrill's English history 

perceiving that he had been a mere tool in the hands 
of men more artful than himself, spared his life and 
gave him the post of scullion in the royal kitchen. 

But a few years afterward a much more dangerous 
pretender claimed the crown of England. Some 
persons, indeed, believe that he was no pretender, 
but the very prince whom he represented himself to 
be — Richard of York, the brother of Edward the 
Fifth. He said that, at the time when he and his 
brother were to have been murdered, some friends 
contrived to get him out of the Tower and conveyed 
him to Flanders, where he had been brought up 
under a feigned name. He was a youth of princely 
aspect and demeanor, and strongly resembled his 
supposed father, Edward the Fourth. 

The King of Scotland believed his story and led 
an army across the English border to support his 
claim ; but no one in England dared rise up to help 
him, for King Henry had seized the chief men 
among the Yorkists and put them to death. Henry 
had also sent messengers to Flanders, to find out 
who this adventurer really was; and they brought 
back word that he was a young man of low birth, 
whose true name was Perkin Warbeck. Beside this, 
two men now came forward and asserted that they 
were the hired murderers who had put the young 
King Edward and his brother to deatli in the Tower; 
but their story was not believed by everybody, be- 
cause Henry allowed them to go unpunished. 

Still no one dared to help Richard (or Perkin), 
and, when the King of Scotland saw that the Eng- 
lish people did not favor the pretender, he marched 
his army back and told him that he must leave 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 93 

Scotland. Perkin's next attempt was in Cornwall, 
where the people were very much dissatisfied with 
King Henry's government. In a few weeks he was 
at the head of ten thousand Cornishmen, with whom 
ne marched into Somersetshire as far as Taunton ; 
but, hearing that two well-appointed armies were 
coming against him, he lost heart and fled for refuge 
to the sanctuary of Beaulieu in Hampshire. His 
forces were soon dispersed by the king's troops. 

Perkin was persuaded to come out of sanctuary, on 
receiving a promise that his life should be spared, 
8.nd was imprisoned, but not very closely. He es- 
caped from his keeper and tried to flee out of Eng- 
land and then the king sent him to the Tower, where 
he was allowed to see the Earl of Warwick very often. 
At the end of three months, Henry accused the 
young men of plotting treason together and caused 
them to be executed. Whatever Perkin might have 
done, the poor young earl was incapable of any crime, 
for he had no more understanding than an infant; 
and his cruel execution is the darkest blot on the 
reign of Henry the Seventh. 

He was led to commit this shameful deed of in- 
justice by his desire to obtain the hand of the Spanish 
princess, Katharine of Arragon, for his eldest son, 
Arthur, Prince of Wales. King Ferdinand, Kath- 
arine's father, had refused to let his daughter marry 
Arthur while a prince of the house of York was liv- 
ing, for he thought that the English people might 
some day choose to make Warwick king. When he 
heard that Warwick was dead, he allowed Katharine 
to come to England; and in November, 1501, she 
was married to Prince Arthur. But the marriage 



94 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

bought with the price of innocent blood was soon 
dissolved, Arthur died of the plague in less than 
five months. 

Katharine would have returned to her own country 
now, but King Henry was unwilling to restore the 
large fortune she had brought with her. So he per- 
suaded Ferdinand to let his daughter remain in Eng- 
land, that she might be m.arried to Arthur's brother, 
Prince Henry, as soon as he was old enough. Henry 
was only eleven years of age at this time; Katharine 
was seven years older. 



CHAPTER XXX 

Conclusion of the Reign of Henry VII — Decay of the Feudal 

System 

(From 1502 to 1509) 

The concluding years of the reign of Henry the 
Seventh are chiefly remarkable for the extortions 
of his two ministers, Empson and Dudley. These 
shrewd, bad men perverted the laws so dexterously 
that many innocent persons were accused of offences 
which they had never committed, and were obliged 
to pay great sums of money to escape punishment. By 
such means the king heaped up immense treasure ; 
but it was a heavy burden on his conscience when 
death drew nigh. He charged his son to make resti- 
tution to the oersons who had been wronged; but 
Prince Henry gave little heed to this injunction. 
He liked to spend money much better than to give it 
back again; so, when he came to the throne, he put 
Empson and Dudley to death, but did not restore 
the money of which they had plundered his father's 
subjects. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 05 

Henry the Seventh died on the 21st of April, 1509, 
having reigned nearly twenty-four years. His wife, 
the gentle Queen Elizabeth of York, had died six 
years before him. Beside his son Henry, the king 
left two daughters — Margaret, married to James the 
Foiirth, king of Scotland; and Mary. 

The reign of Henry the Seventh is looked upon as 
the period when the kings of England began to ac- 
quire more power than they had ever possessed be- 
fore; for \h& feudal system was coming to an end. It 
has been told how, in the time of William the First, 
the largest part of England was portioned out among 
the king's followers on condition of their doing him 
service in time of war or whenever he should call 
upon them ; and how all these great lords of the land, 
who were the king's vassals and were called barons, 
had vassals of their own, who served them just as they 
served the king. 

A baron who had a great deal of land to divide 
among his relatives and friends had a great many 
vassals. That Earl of Warwick who was killed in the 
battle of Barnet had so many that he could lead an 
array into the field, either to help the king or to fight 
against hira. For the barons did not always keep 
their promise to serve the king; if he offended them 
or if he governed badly, they often went to war with 
him and forced him to change his conduct. We have 
read of such wars of the barons against the king 
in the reigns of Henry the Third and Edward the 
Second; but there were no barons now who could 
carry on a contest of that kind. 

Most of the great lords who had governed like 
princes in their castles, and who were able to bring 



96 Merrill's English history 

thousands of armed men into the field, were cut off in 
the War of the Roses, and most of those who re- 
mained had become so poor that they were glad to 
sell part of their lands to other men. There were 
few nobles now who dared even to oppose the king 
in Parliament. And the members of the House of 
Commons did not as yet take on themselves much 
authority, except in matters which related to trade 
or to granting money to the king. So the power of 
the king became much greater than that of the lords 
and commons put together. 

Beside this, in the reign of Henry the Seventh a 
new tribunal was established which put greater 
power into the king's hands. It was called the 
Court of the Star Chamber. In this cotirt, certain 
officers appointed by the king had the power of judg- 
ing and sentencing men without allowing them a 
trial by jury. This was contrary to the Great Char- 
ter, yet the Court of the Star Chamber was allowed 
to exist one hundred and fift}^ years. It was in the 
end the cause of great trouble. 

But there are better things for which to remember 
the reign for Henry the Seventh. 

We have already said that the gentlemen of Eng- 
land were beginriig to love reading and study, in- 
stead of spending all their time in war and hunting. 
In this reign they advanced much in learning and 
began to study the Greek language. For hundreds 
of years there had scarcely been a man in England 
who knew anything about Greek; but there were 
several now, and among them were Thomas Wolsey, 
Thomas More, and Hugh Latimer, all of whom be- 
came famous men in their time. Linacre, the first 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 97 

great English physician, was one of the Greek stu- 
dents; and Dean Colet, who founded St. Paul's 
School in London, that 153 boys might receive a 
good education free of expense, was another. 

In the reign of Henry the Seventh, Englishmen 
first sailed across the Atlantic, and touched the sh^^res 
of America. 

Columbus discovered the great new world in 1492. 
About four years afterward, a Venetian mariner, 
named Cabot, who had settled at Bristol, set out with 
a small company of Englishmen to find lands to the 
north of those which Columbus had seen ; and in 1497 
he discovered the isle of Newfoundland. Afterward 
he explored a large portion of the coast of North 
America. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

Henry VIII, 1509— Battle of Flodden. 1513— Field of the Cloth 

of Gold, 1520 

(From 1509 to 1520) 

Henry the Eighth was not quite eighteen years 
old when he became king. He was a handsome 
and accomplished prince. He was also more learned 
than most men of his time; for his great natural 
abilities had been carefully cultivated by his tutors. 
His frank, joyous manners charmed the people, and 
few suspected that a cruel imperious temper lay 
hidden beneath those fair appearances. 

When once Henry the Eighth had set his mind on a 

thing, no considerations of justice or mercy could 

turn him aside from the pursuit of it; but in the first 

years of his reign this evil disposition was hardly 

7 



98 Merrill's English history 

perceived. All was gayety and enjoyment, and the 
young king's chief fault seemed to be that of wasting 
money in an endless succession of amusements. In 
this manner the great treasures amassed by his father 
were dissipated, and at the end of a few years he was 
obliged to ask Parliament for money. They granted 
it willingly, for Henry was about to invade France, 
and the English were as eager to conquer that coun- 
try as they had been in the days of Edward the 
Third and Henry the Fifth. 

But Henry the Eighth, though personally brave, 
was no conqueror. He took a few towns, and routed 
a body of French troops which were sent against 
him ; but the chief event of the war did not occur 
in France. The French were in alliance with the 
Scots, and when Henry invaded France the Scottish 
king, James the Fourth, attacked England. He 
crossed the border with the finest army ever raised in 
Scotland, but his progress was quickly arrested by 
the English forces under the Earl of Surrey. On the 
9th of September, 15 13, the two armies came in sight 
of one another at Flodden, in Northumberland. The 
battle raged till nightfall ; then the broken remains 
of the Scottish host drew off under cover of the dark- 
ness. They had lost their gallant king and almost 
every gentleman in- Scotland capable of bearing 
arms, beside ten thousand common soldiers. 

After this terrible overthrow the Scots were glad 
to make peace. Soon afterward the war in France 
was also brought to a close, and the treaty was sealed 
by the marriage of the French king, Louis the 
Twelfth, to Henry's youngest sister, Mary, a beauti- 
ful girl of sixteen. Louis died three months after, 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 99 

and Mary gave her hand to a nobleman of her broth- 
er's court, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. 

Francis the First, who succeeded Louis on the 
throne of France, was a warlike prince, ambitious 
of conquest and military glory; like Henry, he was 
also fond of feasts and tournaments and all kinds of 
athletic sports, and the two kings were disposed at 
first to be very friendly. In June, 1520, they agreed 
to meet at Ardres, near Calais, attended by all the 
chief nobles of* England and France. So splendid 
an encampment had never been seen before. The 
meeting-place was called the Field of the Cloth of 
Gold; and gold and silver tissue, rich jewels, and 
armor of the most costly workmanship met the eye 
on all sides. The days were spent in feats of arms, 
the nights in amusement, and the attendants of the 
two kings were so anxious to excel one another in 
the splendor of their dress that it was said, of many 
a foolish young courtier that he wore all his estates 
on his back. 

There was another monarch, younger than Henry 
and Francis, but wiser and more powerful than either, 
who paid court to the English king. This was 
Charles, King of Spain, Emperor of Germany, and 
Ruler of the Netherlands and of a largepart of Italy. 
Charles and Francis were jealous of each other's 
power; they saw that, if they went to war, the help 
of England would enable either to prevail over the 
other; and Henry liked to feel himself of so much 
consequence, and used to boast that he held the 
balance between the two most powerful sovereigns 
in Europe. 

He was too fickle to be a firm friend to either of 



lOO MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

them; but in general he sided with Charles, and 
made war upon France two or three times in the 
course of his reign. Enormous sums of money were 
spent in these military operations, which only ended 
in the conquest of Boulogne and a few other towns. 
The most important events of the reign of Henry 
the Eighth were those which occurred in his own 
palace and kingdom. 

CHAPTER XXXn 

The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth 

Very soon after Henry became king, he married 
Katharine of Arragon. This was contrary to the law 
of the Church, which forbade a man to marry his 
brother's widow; but Henry the Seventh had ob- 
tained the Pope's permission to give Prince Arthur's 
widow to Henry. Katharine was a sensible and 
amiable woman, and for many years she and the king 
lived happily together, but they had the grief to lose 
all their children except one, a daughter named Mary. 

At the end of several years, a beautiful young 
lady, named Anne Boleyn, became one of the queen's 
attendants, and Henry was so charmed with her that 
he resolved to get rid of his wife in order to marry 
Anne. He complained that his conscience was very 
much troubled because he had married his brother's 
widow, and desired that the Pope (who was not the 
same that had given permission for the marriage) 
would command him to put away Katharine. 

The Pope was desirous to please Henry, but he did 
not wish to offend the powerful Emperor Charles, 
who was Queen Katharine's nephew; so he put off 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY lOI 

giving an answer as long as he possibly could. 
Henry, enraged at the delay, resolved that the Pope 
should have no more authority in England. He had 
tried to persuade Katharine to leave him and go into 
a convent, but she refused to do so and alwa3'-s said 
that she was his lawful wife. At length, in great 
anger, he sent her word that she must instantly leave 
Windsor Castle and return to it no more ; nor would 
he ever permit her to see her daughter again. 

Henry had procured a divorce from the new Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, without the 
consent of the Pope. He now married Anne Boleyn ; 
and soon afterward, in 1534, it was declared in Par- 
liament that the Pope had no authority in the Church 
of England. 

Poor Katharine did not live long after her husband 
had so cruelly sent her away. She remembered him 
with affection to the last, and earnestly desired to see 
him when she lay dying ; but he did not go to her. 
He heaped honors and caresses on his new queen, 
and appeared to be very fond of her ; but it was soon 
Anne's turn to be supplanted, as she had supplanted 
Katharine. The king began to admire Jane Seymour, 
one of Anne's ladies in waiting; and, in order to get 
rid of Anne, he caused her to be accused of horrible 
crimes and condemned to death. Only three years 
after she had been crowned queen, her beautiful 
head was cut off in the Tower. She left an infant 
daughter, named Elizabeth. The very day after 
poor Anne's execution, the king married Jane Sey- 
mour. Jane survived her marriage only eighteen 
months. She died a few days after she had become 
the mother of a little prince, named Edward. 



I02 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Henry next asked in marriage a German princess, 
Anna of Cleves. He had seen a portrait of her which 
was beautiful, but when the lady arrived in England, 
and he found that she was much less handsome than 
her picture, he was very angry. His favorite minis- 
ter, Cromwell, who had advised the marriage, was 
soon disgraced on a mock charge of treason and put 
to death. The lady Anna herself was easily per- 
suaded to consent that the marriage should be dis- 
solved. She spent the remainder of her life in 
England, much respected on account of her good- 
ness, and, no doubt, much happier in her retirement 
than she could have been as the wife of Henry. 

He chose for his fifth wdfe a beautiful young lady, 
named Katharine Howard; but the unfortunate lady 
came to a miserable end. While yet a child, she 
had been left an orphan and had been suffered to 
grow up among wicked servants and companions, 
who led her into great sin. She had been queen but 
a little while when some of these wretches betra5'ed 
her former misconduct, and Henry put her to death 
without mercy. 

Every lady in England was afraid of him; and 
when he told Katharine Parr, the widow of Lord 
Latimer, that his choice had fallen on her, she was 
dismayed. But it was dangerous to refuse so fierce 
and self-willed a suitor ; and Katharine Parr became 
his sixth wife. She was a very pious and learned 
woman, a kind mother to the king's children, and a 
most patient nurse to the king, who became miser- 
ably diseased toward the close of his life. 

But Henry's temper became more and more furious 
as his bodily sufferings increased; and all Katha- 



Merrill's English history 103 

rine's excellent qualities hardly availed to save her 
from a cruel death. 

Henry adhered to the doctrines of Rome, though 
he had shaken off the authority of the Pope ; Kath- 
arine accepted the doctrines which are now those of 
the English Church. Some of Henry's councillors, 
whose religion was like his, and especially Bishop 
Gardiner and Chancellor Wriothesley, longed to de- 
stroy the queen, and, finding the king very much out 
of temper one day when she had been arguing with 
him on religious matters, they persuaded him to sign 
a warrant for her arrest. Happily, the chancellor 
dropped the paper without being aware of it, and 
some friend of the queen found it and brought it to 
her. 

When Katharine knew that the king had consented 
to deliver her into the hands of her enemies, she 
gave herself up for lost and became ill with terror 
and distress. Henry relented a little when he heaid 
of her sickness, but as soon as she was sufficiently 
recovered to attend on him as usual, he turned the 
conversation to religion, and tried to make her argue 
with him again, saying, "You are become a doctor, 
Kate, to instruct us." " Not so, Sir," said Katharine, 
meekly ; " I only wished to divert you from your pain 
by these arguments, and to instruct myself in some 
things about which I stood in doubt. " " Is it so, 
sweetheart?" said he, "then we are friends again." 

The next day, Wriothesley, who little thought the 
king had changed his mind, came into the palace 
garden where Henry and Katharine were walking 
together. He had brought with him forty armed 
men, intending to seize the queen and carry her off 



T04 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

to the Tower. But Henry met him with a burst of 
indignation, called him " knave, " " beast, " and " fool, " 
and ordered him to get out of his sight instantly. 
Katharine, seeing her husband so incensed against 
the chancellor, generously interceded for him. 
"Ah. poor soul!" said Henry, "thou little knowest 
how ill he deserveth this grace at thy hands. On 
my word, Kate, he hath been to thee a very knave." 
After some time he forgave Wriothesley, but could 
never again endure the sight of Gardiner. During 
the short remainder of her husband's life no one 
dared to molest Katharine Parr. 



CHAPTER XXXHI 
The Reformation 

It is now necessary to say something about that 
great change in the Church which began to take 
place in the time of Henry the Eighth, and which is 
called the Reformation. 

At the time when Henry began to reign, England 
and most other nations of Europe had long been sub- 
ject to the authority of the Pope in matters relating 
to religion. But, in the year 15 17, Martin Luther 
began in Germany to preach and write against the 
Church of Rome, and a great multitude separated 
themselves from that Church. Before many years 
had passed away, several of the German states, the 
kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, and half of the 
cantons of Switzerland had thrown off their allegi- 
ance to the Pope. The Churches of these countries 
were now called Reformed, and also Protestant, be- 
cause they protested against the doctrines of Rome. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 105 

In England there appeared, at first, to be little pros- 
pect of an}^ change in the Church, for Henry the 
Eighth was so much shocked at the doctrines of 
Luther that he wrote a book against them. And this 
book pleased the Pope so much that he conferred on 
him a new title, "Defender of the Faith." The 
English sovereigns have borne it ever since; that is 
the meaning of the F. D. (for Fidei Def&nsoi^ which 
is engraved on their coins; but the faith which they 
have to defend now is that of the Church of England. 

Notwithstanding the king's indignation at Luther, 
many of his books found their way into England, and 
were much read; and English Bibles began to be 
brought into the country. At that time it was 
against the law to print them in England; but some 
learned zealous men went over to Germany and 
Switzerland, and printed them there. 

We have seen already that Henry lost his regard 
for the Pope when he could not obtain from him per- 
mission to divorce Queen Katharine ; and in the year 
1534 he caused his subjects to renounce the authority 
o£ Rome. Four years afterward he gave leave for a 
Bible to be placed in every parish church ; and in 
the year 1539 the Scriptures were for the first time 
printed in England. These Bibles were very large ; 
they were chained to the reading-desk, round which, 
in some of the churches, groups of working-men 
gathered in the evening when the labors of the day 
were done and listened while one more learned than 
the rest read aloud to his companions. 

But though Henry allowed the people to hear the 
Bible read, he would not allow them to understand 
it differently from himself; he adhered in almost all 



io6 Merrill's English history 

points to the doctrines of Rome, and he made the 
most cruel laws to force his subjects to do so too. 
He put to death with equal cruelty those who ac- 
knowledged the authority of the Pope, and those who 
renounced the doctrines of Rome; the first were 
hanged and quartered as traitors, the last were 
burned as heretics. 

Now and then, indeed, Henry interposed to save 
some one for whom he had a particular friendship ; 
we have seen that he spared Katharine Parr, and on 
another occasion he rescued Cranmer out of the 
hands of the men who sought his life. The king 
had an extraordinary regard for Cranmer, whom he 
had made Archbishop of Canterbury; but it was 
with the greatest difficulty that even Cranmer could 
obtain leave to make any change in the services of 
the Church. In the last year of his reign Henry 
did permit that one portion of the prayers, the Lit- 
any, should be said in English. 

One great change in the Church Henry made will- 
ingly, but in such a way as to cause much evil as 
well as good : he suppressed all the houses of monks 
and nuns. When Christian missionaries first came 
to the Saxons, they built monasteries that they might 
dwell together for prayer and study, and for preach- 
ing to the people and many other useful works. 
Since then nine hundred years had passed away, and 
the monasteries had increased exceedingly in number 
and had been enriched with great estates and treas- 
ures of gold and silver. At this time, many men 
and women retired into convents and monasteries, 
not to pray and to labor, but to lead an idle luxurious 
life. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 107 

The abuses existing- in some of these houses were 
made pretexts for overthrowing them all. But the 
king had another reason ; he wanted the lands and 
wealth of the monks. The abbeys, priories, and 
other large religious houses were the most beautiful 
buildings in England, and the land which belonged 
to them was the richest and best cultivated. The 
heads of these houses lived in princely state, but they 
were kind to their tenants and charitable to the poor. 
There was no poor-law in England then, and the 
poor had no sure resource in times of sickness and 
distress except the food, alms, and medicine which 
were given away at every convert and monastery. 
The king now seized all these houses with everything 
that belonged to them. Some of the abbots resisted, 
and were hanged as traitors ; as for the monks and 
nuns, they were turned out of doors with a small 
present of money. 

It was in vain that Cranmer, Latimer, and other 
good men entreated that some portion of the wealth 
belonging to the religious houses might be conse- 
crated to pious and charitable uses ; the king and his 
courtiers were too greedy of gain. A very little was 
reserved, partly for religious purposes and partly to 
build forts on the coast ; but all the rest was spent by 
Henry or lavished on his favorite courtiers. 

Each abbey had a noble church belonging to it, 
but the new owners tore down the abbeys and even 
profaned and ruined the churches, that they might 
sell the materials of which they were built. The 
poor suffered great misery now that their former 
benefactors had no longer the power to relieve them. 
Some formidable insurrections took place in conse- 



io8 Merrill's English history 

quence, and the evil was never thoroughly remedied 
until, about sixty years afterward, a law was made 
that every parish should provide for its own poor. 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

Some of the Chief Men of the Time of Henry VIII— Death of 
the King, 1547 — Creation of a Navy by Henry VIII — • 
Wales 

(From 1509 to 1547) 

Among the famous men who lived in the lime of 
Henry the Eighth, no one held so high a place dur- 
ing the first twenty years of his r^ign as Thomas 
Wolsey. Wolsey was ihe son of a butcher at Ipswich, 
but v/as sent when very young to Oxford to be edu- 
cated for the priesthood. His abilities and love of 
learning soon won friends, who promoted him in the 
Church and introduced him to Henry the Seventh, 
by whom he was employed in some affairs of state 
which he managed much to the king's satisfaction ; but 
when Henry the Eighth succeeded his father on the 
throne, Wolsey rose rapidly in power and honor. 
The young king made him his favorite companion and 
consulted him upon all occasions ; and all the most 
important business of the realm, whether at home or 
abroad, was committed to his management. Beside 
this, the king gave him several bishoprics; but Wol- 
sey gave very little heed to his duties as a bishop, his 
time being taken up with other employments. 

All the foreign princes who wished to obtain any- 
thing from Henry began by lavishing honors and 
presents on his favorite minister. Wolsey became 
enormously rich, but he spent as largely as he re- 
ceived. He built a noble palace at Hampton Court, 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 109 

and presented it with all its contents to the king ; he 
devised innumerable costly pageants for his master's 
entertainment; he also bestowed liberal gifts on 
learned men, and founded the great college of Christ 
Church in Oxford. Wolsey meant it to be called 
"Cardinal College;" the Pope had lately made him a 
cardinal, and he was very proud of his new dignity. 
Soon afterward the king promoted him to be Lord 
Chancellor. 

He was now as high in station as it was possible 
for any English subject to be, but this did not con- 
tent Wolsey. He wanted to climb higher still and 
be pope. In the mean time he surrounded himself 
with pomp and magnificence, and the sons of the 
noblest families in England waited as pages in his 
palace. Even his daily progress to Westminster 
Hall was a ceremony for the multitude to gaze at. 
In front went his gentlemen-ushers, bareheaded, 
calling out, " Make way, my lords and masters, make 
way for my Lord Cardinal;" then came the tallest 
priests that could be found in the kingdom, riding on 
horses clothed in scarlet and bearing in their hands 
great silver crosses. These w^ere followed by gentle- 
men who carried silver pillars, to denote that their 
master was a pillar of the Church, Behind these 
rode a long train of gentlemen, richly apparelled, 
and in the midst was the great man himself, in his 
robes of scarlet or crimson satin, mounted on a mule 
with trappings of gold. A hundred servants attend- 
ed him and prevented the crowd from pressing too 
closely round their master. 

But with all his splendor Wolsey did not win much 
real honor or regard. His arrogance made him hate- 



iio Merrill's English history 

fill both to rich and poor ; and when the king began 
to look coldly on him every one was ready to hasten 
his downfall. Wolsey ventured at first to oppose the 
marriage of the king with Anne Boleyn, and Henry 
never liked him so well afterward. An accusation 
of treason being got up against him, he was stripped 
of all his wealth and honors, and left utterly at the 
king's mercy. He now fell into such a state of terror 
and misery that Henry relented a little. He would 
not see his fallen favorite, but he sent him word that 
he might go and live in the diocese of York, of which 
he was archbishop. Poor Wolsey still clung fondly 
to the pomp of oifice, and prepared to be magnifi- 
cently enthroned in York Minster; but before this 
could be done messengers came from the king to ar- 
rest him and bring him prisoner to London. This 
was the death-blow of the unhappy cardinal. He 
advanced as far as Leicester on his sorrowful jour- 
ney; but there fear and anguish of mind brought 
him to the grave, complaining with his dying breath, 
" Had I but served my God as diligently as I have 
served the king, He would not have given me over 
in my gray hairs." 

The Lord Chancellor who succeeded Wolsey was 
a very different man. The wisdom, wit, and elo- 
quence of Sir Thomas More made him the most re- 
nowned Englishman of his time. He was deeply 
learned and his writings are still much admired ; but 
v/e remember him for his virtues quite as much as 
for his genius. He did not care in the least for out- 
ward show and parade, or for great riches; he de- 
lighted in study, in works of charity, and above all 
in the care and instruction of his family. All his 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY l i [ 

children and grandchildren lived under the same 
roof with him, and there was not a happier home in 
England. 

Before he became a judge he had been a great 
lawyer, and used to seek out poor persons who were 
involved in law-suits, especially any distressed widow 
or orphans who needed an advocate to plead their 
cause, and to these he would give his best services 
without any fee or reward. And after he was made 
Lord Chancellor he showed the same anxiety that no 
one should suffer wrong for want of money to seek 
redress in a court of law. 

The king often sent for More that he might enjoy 
his delightful conversation, and would sometimes 
visit him at his own house without ceremony. His 
children were elated at this extraordinary honor 
put upon their father; but More discerned Henry's 
true character beneath his seeming friendliness and 
checked their rejoicing b}^ telling them there was no 
cause to be proud of the king's favor, " If my head 
could win him a castle in France, he would strike it 
off without fail." And at the end of a very few 
years the head of this virtuous man was struck off, 
not even to w4n a castle for his ungrateful master, 
but because he was too honest to say that which he 
did not believe. 

The king required him to declare that it was right 
for Katharine of Arragon to be sent away, and for 
Anne Boleyn to be queen in her stead; and also that 
it was right for Henry to be head of the English 
Church instead of the Pope. More did not think 
these things were right, and could not say so. He 
did not oppose the king; he gave up his office of 



112 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

chancellor, and only begged that he might be al- 
lowed to live quietly at home with his family. But 
Henry was enraged that his will should be crossed. 
He tore More away from his pleasant home, shut 
him up in close confinement for more than a year, 
and then caused his head to be cut off upon a false 
charge of treason. 

From that time the king seemed to become more 
cruel than before, and the last eighteen years of his 
reign were filled with deeds of blood. Among the 
victims whom he sent to the scaffold was his cousin, 
Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, an 
aged lady of seventy. She was the sister of that 
unhappy Earl of Warwick who was kept in prison 
nearly all his life and then beheaded by Henry the 
Seventh. 

The Countess Margaret had several sons. The 
youngest of them, Reginald Pole, who was a priest 
and a talented man, had excited Henry's wrath by 
refusing to take part with him against the Pope; he 
had also said plainly that he thought the king in 
many respects acted wickedly. Reginald Pole was 
abroad, out of the king's reach; but Henry took 
fearful vengeance on those members of the family 
who were in England. His eldest brother and his 
cousin, the Marquis of Exeter, were put to death ; 
another brother was imprisoned for life; and his 
aged mother, after enduring much ill-treatment, was 
condemned to be beheaded. Reginald Pole became 
a cardinal, and we shall find him playing an impor- 
tant part in another reign. 

The last of Henry's victims was the gallant Earl 
of Surrey, the grandson of the victor of Flodden, 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 113 

and the most accomplished nobleman in England; 
he was executed on some pretence of treason. His 
father, the Duke of Norfolk, was involved in the same 
accusation. Norfolk was a bad man, a very different 
character from his son ; but he had done nothing for 
which it was lawful to put him to death. Neverthe- 
less, he would have had his head cut off if the king 
had not died a few hours before the time fixed for 
Norfolk's execution. 

Henry the Eighth breathed his last on the 28th of 
January, 1547, after a reign of nearly thirty-eight 
years. Notwithstanding his cruelties, of which in 
this little history we have not told the hundredth 
part, he was always a popular king with the lower 
orders of the people. They were allowed to see him 
without restraint when he was amusing himself with 
out-door sports, and there was a rough mirthfulness 
in his character which pleased them greatly. His 
parliaments were afraid to provoke his anger, and 
basely gave their consent to all his worst deeds. 
There was only one thing they would not allow him 
to do — to tax the people without their consent. He 
tried to do so, but the attempt was so stoutly resisted 
that he was forced to give it up. 

There was one thing in which Henry the Eighth 
showed the spirit of an English king — he took great 
pains to create a navy. Ever since the time of 
Henry the Fifth the kings of England had possessed 
a few ships of their own ; but Henry the Eighth es- 
tablished the royal dockyards of Deptford, Woolwich, 
and Portsmouth. He made laws for the planting 
and preserving of trees, so that there might always 
be a supply of timber fit to build ships of war. He 



114 Merrill's English history 

was the first to appoint regular salaries for the officers 
and sailors; and he did several other things which 
helped to raise up those " wooden walls of Old Eng- 
land" of which the nation is so proud. 

In the year 1543, Henry the Eighth gave better 
laws to Wales, increased the number of the Welsh 
counties to twelve, and ordered that every county 
and chief town should send a member to the English 
Parliament. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

Edward VI, 1547 — War with Scotland — Reformation in the 

English Church 

(From 1547 to 1552) 

Henry the Eighth left three children : Edward, 
the son of Jane Seymour, who was nine years of age 
when his father died; Elizabeth, the daughter of 
Anne Boleyn, who was thirteen; and Mary, the 
daughter of Katharine of Arragon, who was thirty- 
one. He had given them a thorough education, and 
the little prince was already remarkable for his love 
of knowledge. He was also a very amiable boy, and 
his early wisdom and piety gave promise of a happy 
reign ; but he lived only a few years and was too 
young to be king except in name. 

The real rulers of England during his reign were, 
first, his uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, 
and then Dudley, Earl of Warwick, afterward made 
Duke of Northumberland. It had been a favorite 
plam with Henry the Eighth to marry his son Edward 
to the little Mary, Queen of Scotland. Mary was 
the granddaughter of James the Fourth, who fell at 
Flodden; she had become the Oueen of Scots even 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY II5 

in her cradle, for her father, James the Fifth, died 
a few days after her birth. If she had been given in 
marriage to Edward, the whole island would have 
been united under one ruler, and there would have 
been an end to the wars between England and Scot- 
land. Some of the Scottish lords were willing to 
consent to the marriage; but Henry was impatient 
to make them all do so, and went to war. 

After his death, Somerset continued the war, and 
entered Scotland at the head of seventy thousand 
men. The Scots raised a still larger force, but they 
were overthrown with great slaughter at Pinkie, 
near Musselburgh, in September, 1547. The in- 
juries inflicted on them by England only made them 
the more determined that their little queen should 
not marry an English husband. They agreed to give 
her in marriage to the eldest son of Henry the 
Second, King of France ; and Mary was sent to the 
French court to be educated with Prince Francis, 
her future husband. 

The Duke of Somerset favored the Reformation, 
and allowed Cranmer to make many changes in the 
services of the Church. The mass was abolished; 
the Bible was allowed to be freely read; and on 
Whitsunday, 1549, the English Book of Common 
Prayer was enjoined to be used for the first time in 
every parish church throughout the kingdom. In 
general, the priests consented to these changes ; but 
some of the bishops refused to do so, and were de- 
prived of their sees, which were given to other men. 

But, while Somerset allowed Cranmer and his 
fellow-laborers to alter the doctrine and worship of 
the Church, he would not listen to them when they 



ii6 Merrill's English history 

told him it was wrong to destroy churches, or to take 
away the riches which belonged to them for himself 
and his friends. Somerset pulled down two churches 
to build a palace, and all the great men about the 
court behaved as they had done in the time of Henry 
the Eighth. They stripped the churches and other 
religious edifices of everything which could be taken 
away, destroyed the tombs that they might sell the 
brasses with which they were ornamented, and even 
sold the church bells to foreign countries. 

Every one seemed intent chiefly on making him- 
self rich and great. Somerset even sacrificed his 
own brother for fear he should become more power- 
ful than himself. Lord Thomas Seymour, the king's 
youngest uncle, was jealous of Somerset's great 
authority, and wanted to share the government of 
the kingdom with him; -for this Somerset caused 
him to be executed as a traitor. In less than three 
years afterward the same fate fell upon himself. 
Dudley hated him and wanted to step into his place ; 
so he stirred up the other councillors of state to ac- 
cuse Somerset of high treason, and after a very un- 
fair trial he was beheaded. 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

Reign of Edward VI — {coiitznued') 

The King's Sisters — Schools and Hospitals founded by- 
Edward VI — Voyage of Discovery to the Northeast — 
Lady Jane Grey — Death of Edward, 1553 

(From 1552 to 1553) 

The young king had been made to sign the death- 
warrant of both his uncles, and now Dudley, who 
had become Duke of Northumberland, kept him en- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY II7 

tirely under his own control and would hardly allow 
him even to see his sisters. Edward was very fond 
of his sister Elizabeth ; they had been brought up 
together when little children, and they had the same 
love for learning. They were still two of the most 
diligent students in the kingdom, but they no longer 
studied together ; Elizabeth lived by herself at Hat- 
field House, and was only allowed to pay a formal 
visit now and then to the palace. 

Edward loved her the more because she was at- 
tached, like himself, to the doctrines of the English 
Church. His eldest sister, Mary, was a zealous Ro- 
man Catholic, and her determination to have mass 
celebrated in her house gave great pain to the young 
king. He almost thought he was guilty of sin in 
permitting her to follow her own conscience, though 
she was so much older than himself. . 

But in those days every one thought it wrong that 
kings should allow their subjects to follow an 
erroneous religion. The Reformers forbade the 
Roman Catholics to say mass on pain of being fined 
and imprisoned. They even thought that those per- 
sons ought to be put to death who refused to acknowl- 
edge the doctrine of the Trinity, or who denied that 
Christ was both God and man. Two persons were 
burned in the reign of Edward for offences of that 
kind. 

In general, Cranmer used his power in the Church 
with much gentleness. He was much more desirous 
to instruct and convert men than to punish them. 
By his advice, excellent public schools were founded 
in many parts of England. 

In ever}^ way in which so young a king could bene- 



ii8 Merrill's English history 

fit the state, Edward tried to do good to England. 
He began already to form plans for increasing the 
trade and shipping of the country, and would often 
send for the wise old navigator Cabot, that he might 
talk with him about finding out new lands, so that 
his people might have plenty of employment; send- 
ing abroad the things they could make in England, 
and bringing back from strange countries all the 
useful and pleasant things they could find there. 

He was greatly pleased when a few merchants and 
gentlemen fitted out three ships to search for a north- 
east passage to China and India. No one knew then 
that such a passage was impracticable on account of 
the ice; and the brave Sir Hugh Willoughby, who 
commanded the expedition, set sail in the highest 
spirits, after receiving many marks of favor from the 
young king. Edward watched the departing ships 
from his palace at Greenwich, little thinking of the 
sad fate which awaited most of those brave sailors. 
Sir Hugh and seventy of his companions were frozen 
up in a harbor on the east coast of Lapland and died 
of cold and hunger. The others reached Archangel 
and travelled overland to Moscow, where the czar 
took them into great favor, and willingly consented 
that his subjects should trade with England. Before 
this time Englishmen hardly knew that there was 
such a country as Russia (or, as it was then called, 
Muscovy) ; but ever since they have carried on a 
profitable trade with the Russians. 

Soon after this expedition left England, the young 
king died. His health had been declining for many 
months, and he thought anxiously what would be- 
come of his people when his sister Mary succeeded 



MERRILLS ENGLISH HISTORY HQ 

him. He feared she would not only restore Roman 
Catholicism, but would persecute the Protestants. 

Northumberland represented to him that he might 
prevent these evils by appointing another successor, 
and urged him to leave the crown to his cousin, Lady 
Jane Grey, Edward would have appointed Eliza- 
beth, but Northumberland said he could not exclude 
one of his sisters from the throne without shutting 
out both. 

The next heir after Mary and Elizabeth was the 
young Queen of Scots, the granddaughter of Henry 
the Seventh's eldest daughter Margaret; but, as she 
was a Roman Catholic, Edward did not think of her 
for his successor. The Lady Jane Grey was the 
granddaughter of Henry the Seventh's youngest 
daughter Mary, who married Charles Brandon, Duke 
of Suffolk. She was the most learned, and at the 
same time the loveliest and most gentle lady at the 
English court, of the same age with the young king, 
and one of his favorite companions. Northumber- 
land wished her to be queen, not because she was 
wise and good, but because he had married his 
youngest son, Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane. 

When Edward told his judges and councillors that 
he was going to leave the crown away from his 
sisters, they assured him that it would be contrary 
to law. Northumberland replied that Henry the 
Eighth had caused one of his parliaments to pass an 
act which shut out both Mary and Elizabeth from 
the throne, though he changed his mind afterward, 
and made another parliament pass an act which gave 
them back their right of succession ; and he said a 
parliament should be called in order to give the 



I20 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

crown to Lady Jane. This was not done, for Ed- 
ward died on the 6th of July, 1553. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

Lady Jane Grey, Queen — Mary I — Execution of Lady Jane 
and her Husband — The Roman Catholic Worship restored 
in the Churches — The Queen's Marriage to Philip of 
Spain — Imprisonment of the Princess Elizabeth 

(From 1553 to 1554) 

Northumberland concealed the death of Edward 
for two days that he might take measures for secur- 
ing the crown to his daughter-in-law. He however 
deceived himself greatly in supposing that the nation 
would accept a sovereign at his bidding. Even if 
the Lady Jane had had any right to the throne, she 
was so young that the real ruler of England for years 
to come must have been Northumberland; and the 
people hated him. The Lady Jane knew nothing of 
his schemes for placing her on the throne, and did 
not wish to be a queen. When Northumberland 
and her own father, the Duke of Suffolk, came to 
tell her that King Edward was dead and that she 
was to succeed him, she fainted and fell to the 
ground ; and when she recovered her senses and her 
parents knelt before her, urging and entreating her 
to assume the crown, she wept bitterly and told them 
she had no right to it while the sisters of Edward 
were living. They forced her at last to take the title 
of queen ; but her reign lasted only for a few days. 

Mary was not at all intimidated by Northumber- 
land's proceedings; the Roman Catholics of England 
were on her side, and many of the Protestants also, 
since she was the lawful successor to King Edward. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 12 1 

They were the more ready to take tip arms for her, 
because she promised that no one should be molested 
on account of his religion. At the end of ten days 
Northumberland saw that his cause was hopeless. 
He was obliged to proclaim Mary queen, and the 
Lady Jane, gladly laying aside the royal state she 
had been forced to assume, returned with her hus- 
band to her own quiet home. 

They were not suffered to remain in peace; Mary's 
ministers threw them into prison on a charge of 
treason, and they were condemned to die, though 
the sentence was not immediately executed. North- 
umberland was put to death at once. Suffolk was 
pardoned; but at the end of a few months heat- 
tempted a rebellion and was then put to death. His 
innocent daughter shared in his punishment, though 
she had taken no part in his crime. Mary gave 
orders that Jane and her husband should be beheaded 
without further delay. 

They died on the same day, but not together; 
Lord Guilford Dudley was executed on Tower Hill, 
Lady Jane within the walls of the Tower. Early in 
the morning Jane saw her husband led through the 
gates toward the scaffold, and about an hour after- 
ward, chancing to look through the window, she be- 
held his bleeding body brought back in a cart. 
When she had seen that sad sight she went forth to 
die with the same gentle, pious firmness which had 
marked all her conduct. She was only seventeen at 
the time of her death. 

Suffolk had been encouraged to make his fatal at- 
tempt at rebellion by the discontent with which men 
were already beginning to regard Queen Mary's 



122 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

government. She had quickly departed from her 
promise about religion; the Protestant bishops, and 
many of the best men in the Church, had already 
been thrown into prison. She was hardly seated on 
the throne when she began to exchange letters and 
messages with the Pope, and with Cardinal Pole, to 
whom she was much attached, asking them to assist 
her in bringing back England under the authority of 
the Pope. This was done with great secrecy, but 
the Roman Catholic worship had been at once openly 
restored and the English prayers forbidden to be 
used. 

All the queen's subjects, of whatever religion they 
might be, murmured greatly when they heard that 
she meant to marry Philip of Spain, the son of the 
Emperor Charles. Philip was but a young man, 
many years younger than Mary; but he was already 
notorious for a proud, stern, gloomy disposition, and 
it was well known that he hated a free government. 
Englishmen feared he would try to destroy their 
liberties, and dreaded him the more because he pos- 
sessed fleets and armies with which to uphold his 
tyranny. The Spanish ambassador, who came to 
conclude the marriage, narrowly escaped being torn 
to pieces by the populace, and a few weeks later a 
formidable insurrection broke out in Kent. 

It was headed by a brave, rash young man, named 
Sir Thomas Wyatt, who declared that he took up 
arms to prevent the queen from marrying a Span- 
iard. Some of Mary's own troops joined him, and 
he nearly obtained possession of the city of London. 

The queen behaved very bravely ; she went to the 
Guildhall, where the citizens were assembled, and 



Merrill's English history 123 

promised them that she would think no more about 
marrying Philip if the parliament did not heartily 
agree to it. This encouraged them to take up arms 
in her cause, and when Wyatt attempted to force 
his way into London he was repulsed both at Lon- 
don Brido-e and at Ludo-ate. In those old times, 
these were fortified posts, defended by strong gates 
and bars of iron. 

Wyatt was obliged to surrender, and was put to 
death for his treason ; but not until he had been de- 
tained in prison for a month, during which time 
Mary's ministers strove to make him accuse the 
Princess Elizabeth of having shared in his plot. 

Elizabeth was much more beloved by the people 
than Mary; and the queen's Spanish friends wanted 
to put her to death. But, as nothing could be proved 
against her, they were obliged to content themselves 
with shutting her up in the Tower, where her only 
indulgence was a daily walk in a little garden en- 
closed within the walls of the prison. The little 
children of the officers of the Tower pitied the poor 
captive lady, and used to watch for her coming out 
that they might bring her flowers. But her sister's 
ministers soon deprived her of these harmless com- 
panions, giving orders that the children should be 
locked indoors while the princess was out. 

Elizabeth was at length permitted to remove into 
the country, but was so rigorously guarded that 
when she heard a milkmaid singing at her w^ork she 
could not help wishing to change places with her. 
After the marriage which the people hated so much 
had taken place, her captivity was lightened. The 
queen's health was very feeble; Philip thought she 



124 Merrill's English history 

would probably not live long, and he wished to be 
on good terms with Elizabeth, so he persuaded Mary 
to send for her to court and show her some kindness. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 

Reign of Mary I — {conti7itied) 

The Authority of the Pope Re-established in England — Loss 
of Calais, 1558 — Death of Mary I 

(From 1554 to 1558) 

Soon after the queen's marriage Cardinal Pole ar- 
rived in England. He was empowered by the Pope 
to receive the humble submission of the nation, and 
to pardon England for having thrown off its obe- 
dience to Rome in the time of Henry the Eighth. 

The lords and gentlemen who had been enriched 
by the plunder of the monasteries refused, at first, 
to have anything to do with the Pope; for they 
thought he would require them to give back all the 
lands which had once belonged to the Church. But 
when the Pope gave them leave to keep all this prop- 
erty they were satisfied; and, although many of 
them had professed to be Protestants in the reign of 
Edward the Sixth, they readily consented to pass 
laws against their Protestant fellow-subjects. Only 
thirty-seven members of the House of Commons re- 
fused their assent and withdrew from' Parliament, 
for which they were punished by fines and imprison- 
ment. 

And now the fires of persecution were lighted. It 
was an age of intolerance, and the party in power, 
whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, believed it 
right ta destroy those of their opponents whom they 
could not convert. Mary and her ministers were 



]\IERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY I 25 

doubtless conscientious in the cruelties they inflicted 
upon the Protestants, hundreds of whom suffered 
death for their faith. Among these were many great 
and good men, like Ridley and Latimer, who were 
burned together at Oxford. " Be of good cheer, 
Master Ridley," said his aged friend, "and play the 
man. We shall this day light such a candle, by 
God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be 
put out." 

It was even so ; for, notwithstanding all this per- 
secution, England was becoming a more Protesrtant 
country than it had ever been before. The attempts 
to root out the new faith served only to strengthen it. 

It is impossible to say what share Queen Mary had 
in all these horrible deeds. She was in very bad 
health, and may not always have known what her 
ministers and bishops were doing; but she had given 
them full power to persecute her Protestant subjects. 
Some of the bishops were humane men, and would 
have no burnings in their dioceses ; but others had 
no mercy for those whom they regarded as heretics. 
From February, 1555, to November, 1558, two hun- 
dred and ninety persons were burned alive, beside 
many who perished in prison. 

The queen was very miserable. Philip had be- 
come King of Spain and made that an excuse for 
withdrawing from England ; he did not care for 
Mary, but she was very fond of him and tried in all 
things to please him. Because he was at war with 
France, it pleased the queen that England should go 
to war; the consequence of which was that in Jan- 
uary, 1558, the English lost Calais after possess- 
ing it for more than two hundred years. The whole 



126 Merrill's ENGLISH history 

country broke out in loud complaints; but no one 
was so grieved and mortified as the queen, who used 
to say that when she died " Calais " would be found 
written on her heart. 

But nothing prospered in this wretched reign. 
Bad seasons had destroyed the harvests, year after 
year ; they were followed by a virulent fever, which, 
in 1558, carried off so many of the country people 
that in some places the corn rotted on the ground for 
want of laborers to gather it in. Mary's prime min- 
ister, Gardiner, was dead ; Cardinal Pole was dying ; 
and the queen herself was sinking rapidly. On the 
17th of November, 1558, to the unspeakable relief of 
her subjects, she died. That same afternoon, the 
bells of all the churches in London rang joyfully for 
the accession of her sister ; every open space was lit 
up with bonfires ; and the citizens set out tables in 
the streets and invited every one who went by to 
feast and make merry in honor of Queen Elizabeth. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

Queen Elizabeth, 155S — Protestantism established in England 
— Elizabeth's Navy — Her new Coinage 

(From 1558 to 1568) 

Elizabeth was twenty-five years of age when she 
came to the throne. She was tall, handsome, and 
majestic; the queenly dignity of her behavior was 
mingled with a kind and cheerful condescension 
which won all hearts; her subjects loved as much as 
they reverenced her. She was a princess of extra- 
ordinary sagacity, and gave proof of it on the first 
day of her reign by choosing for her chief adviser 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 27 

Sir William Cecil, afterward the famous Lord Bur- 
leigh; with him she joined Sir Nicholas Bacon, and 
some years afterward Sir Francis Walsingham. 
These were three of the wisest statesmen who have 
ever helped to govern England; and under their 
direction the rule of Elizabeth was prosperous at 
home and glorious in the eyes of foreign nations. 

The first care of the queen was to set free all per- 
sons who were in prison for their religious opinions. 
Leave was at once given to use English instead of 
Latin in the Church services; and Parliament was 
summoned to meet as soon as possible, that all things 
relating to the Church might be set in order. 

The day before her coronation. Queen Elizabeth 
made a grand progress through the city of London, 
and w^as everywhere " greeted by the prayers, the 
shouts, the tender words, and uplifted hands of the 
people." The narrow and dingy streets were turned 
into gayly decorated avenues. Arches of flowers and 
green boughs were thrown across them ; flags waved 
on the roofs, and the houses were covered with hang- 
ings of tapestry, silk, and velvet, suspended from 
the topmost windows. 

Elizabeth advanced at a slow pace through this 
gay scene, returning with many kind words the 
greetings of her people, and often pausing to look at 
the pageants which they had erected for her enter- 
tainment. One of these represented Time, under 
the figure of an old man issuing from a cave and 
carrying a scythe and hour-glass ; Time led by the 
hand his daughter Truth, who presented to the 
queen a book, on which was written, " The Word of 
Truth:" it was an English Bible. Elizabeth took it 



128 Merrill's English history 

reverently in her hands, kissed it, and laid it upon 
her heart, much to the joy of the beholders. 

As soon as Parliament assembled the authority of 
the Pope was once more renounced ; the queen was 
declared supreme governor both in church and state ; 
the mass was abolished, and the Book of Common 
Prayer was restored in all the churches. Nearly all 
the parish priests conformed to the new laws; four- 
teen bishops refused to do so and were deprived of 
their sees, but no harm was done to them. The new 
bishops were chosen from among the learned and 
pious men who had been forced to hide themselves 
or to flee to foreign countries during the reign of 
Mary. 

Though several years of peace and prosperity fol- 
lowed these changes, Elizabeth knew that she could 
not hope to keep her kingdom in safety and honor 
without being prepared for a time of war. The 
navy had dwindled awa}' during the reign of her 
sister; Elizabeth repaired the evil without loss of 
time. She built ships of war, fortified the banks of 
the Medway where they rode at anchor, and estab- 
lished well-stocked arsenals in the chief towns along 
the coast. She encouraged her subjects to make 
gunpowder, instead of buying it from foreigners 
as they had done. The merchants and people of the 
seaport towns followed their sovereign's example, 
and built so many ships that in the fourth year of 
her reign Elizabeth was able to send to sea a fleet 
with twenty thousand fighting men on board. 

She had already done another thing which greatl}^ 
pleased and benefited her subjects. In the time of 
Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, the gov- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 129 

eminent had mixed so much base metal with the 
silver out of which the money was coined, that the 
pieces of money called crowns, shillings, sixpences, 
etc., were not worth half their pretended value. 

Elizabeth caused plenty of new good silver to be 
coined, and then she ordered all the people to bring 
their base money to the royal mint, and gave them 
the good money instead of it. No copper was coined 
in England then ; it was all gold and silver. 

In the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, she 
ordered the Bible and Book of Common Prayer to be 
translated into Welsh. 

CHAPTER XL 

Some of the Chief Men in Queen EHzabeth's Time 

Elizabeth reigned nearly forty-five years, of which 
the first ten were by far the most peaceful. During 
the remainder of the period, the quiet of the country 
was more or less disturbed by plots against the gov- 
ernment. The root of these evils was the enmity of 
the Pope and of the rulers of France and Spain to the 
queen and people of England. These powers had 
banded themselves in a league to root out Protestant- 
ism. 

Before we can proceed with the history of Eliza- 
beth's reign, it is necessary to know a little about 
the affairs of some other countries, and especially 
of Scotland. Something must be said, also, of the 
great men whose wisdom and bravery rendered this 
period of English history so glorious. 

First, there were the great sea-captains, who 
carried the flag of England into regions which no 
9 



130 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Eng-lishman had ever seen before. And not only 
seamen engaged in these voyages, but gentlemen of 
large estate, knights, and courtiers, all took the 
greatest delight in finding out new countries, and 
also in attacking and despoiling the settlements of 
the Spaniards. 

Drake and Frobisher were two of the most famous 
navigators. Frobisher was intent upon finding out 
a northwest passage to India, and, though he did not 
succeed in that, he was the first man to penetrate 
into the Polar Sea, and to discover many parts both 
of the land and water in the far north of America. 
Drake was the first Englishman who sailed round 
the world, and the one whom the Spaniards most 
dreaded. 

The Spaniards and Portuguese wanted to keep 
America and Africa and India, and the rich islands 
or the Indian seas, entirely for themselves. The 
Portuguese had planted colonies in Africa and India; 
the Spaniards in America, the West Indies, and the 
Indian islands. Their settlements were on both 
sides of America; and they knew the way to pass 
round from the east to the west by the Straits of 
Magellan, but they never attempted it, because the 
sea there was very stormy and dangerous. So they 
went to and fro between Spain and Peru, by sailing 
round the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the 
Indian and Pacific oceans, and they hoped they should 
never see the ships of any other nation than their 
own in the wide waters of the Pacific. 

In the year 1572, Drake was in the Caribbean Sea. 
He landed on the isthmus of Darien, and having 
travelled a good way across the country and climbed 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY I31 

a high tree on a hill, he looked on each side of him 
and saw to the east the Atlantic over which he had 
sailed, and to the west the boundless Pacific. Drake 
lifted up his hands, and said, " Almighty God, of 
thy goodness give me life and leave to sail once an 
English ship on that sea!" 

Four years afterward, he set sail from England in 
a small ship with a gallant little company of one 
hundred and fifty-four gentlemen and sailors. He 
directed his course to the dreaded strait of Magellan, 
passed safely through it, then cruised about the coast 
till he had taken several large Spanish ships laden 
with treasure from the mines of Peru. Afterward 
he went far to the north, and found a country the 
inhabitants of which were so pleased with their Eng- 
lish visitors that they brought them many presents, 
among which were baskets of tobacco, a plant which 
no Englishman had ever seen before. 

From the main land Drake steered boldly out 
across the Pacific till he came to the Indian islands, 
where the sailors obtained quantities of sago and 
many other things which were as new and strange 
to them as the tobacco. 

After this they made no more land till they passed 
the Cape of Good Hope, and in three months more 
reached England, after an absence of two years and 
ten months. Great was the rejoicing when it was 
told that Drake had been quite round the world. 
The queen herself went to visit him on board his 
ship and knighted him ; saying at the same time, 
that his own actions did him more honor than any 
title she could give him. 

Brave men all over England longed to follow 



T32 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Drake's example ; and soon they endeavored to plant 
English colonies in America. Sir Walter Raleigh 
was one of the chief movers in this attempt. He 
spent a large fortune in trying to found a settlement 
in Virginia : it did not succeed for many years, but 
the ships which went to and fro began to bring home 
a great many valuable American productions, and 
especially potatoes, which were now seen in Eng- 
land for the first time. Englishmen did not find out 
the use of this root so quickly as they did that of 
tobacco, which Raleigh's settlers taught them to 
smoke, having learned it themselves of the natives 
of Virginia. 

Raleigh was a brave knight, a good author, and an 
adventurous sailor ; he was also a very elegant and 
accomplished man, and a great favorite with Queen 
Elizabeth. It is said that he first gained her favor 
one day when she was coming out of the palace at 
Greenwich, and he happened to be in the crowd that 
had gathered to see her pass to her barge on the 
Thames. The night had been rainy, and just where 
young Raleigh stood the road was muddy. The 
queen hesitated to go on, when he gallantly took his 
rich cloak from his shoulders and laid it on the miry 
spot that she might step over it without soiling her 
shoes. The cloak was ruined, but its owner had 
won the grateful regard of his sovereign. 

Elizabeth used to say that the brightest jewel of her 
court was another knight. Sir Philip Sidney. His 
memory is a lasting treasure to his native land. He 
equalled Raleigh in genius and bravery, and far ex- 
celled him in goodness. At five-and-twenty he was 
already as much honored for his wisdom as he was 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 33 

loved for his valor and generosity. We now remem- 
ber him more for the last of his kind actions than for 
all the great deeds of his life. He had gone to the 
Netherlands to help the men who were fighting for 
their religion and liberty against the king of Spain, 
and was mortally wounded at the battle of Zutphen. 
Bleeding to death and parched with thirst, he asked 
for water, and with great difficulty a little was pro- 
cured and brouofht to him on the battlefield. But 
Sidney would not drink, for he had seen a poor 
wounded soldier looking at the cup with longing 
eyes. "Give it to that poor man," said he, "his 
necessity is still greater than mine." 

Philip Sidney was only thirty-two when he died; 
and all England mourned for his loss. One of his 
friends, the young Earl of Essex, tried to copy his 
example, and he did show himself to be brave, and 
clever, and generous; but Essex never learned to 
rule his own spirit, and his end was far unlike 
Sidney's. 

Essex was Queen Elizabeth's chief favorite. She 
had always some favorite among the courtiers and 
nobles who attended on her. The first one was 
Robert Dudley, whom she afterward made Earl of 
Leicester. He was handsome and accomplished, 
but he was a bad man, though he concealed his real 
character so artfully that the queen never found him 
out. After his death, Essex came into the highest 
favor. But the queen did not take counsel about 
great matters of state with her favorites ; in all im- 
portant affairs she consulted Burleigh and the wise 
statesmen whom she had associated with him. 



134 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 



CHAPTER XLI 

Reign of Elizabeth — {continued) 

Ill-will of the French and Spaniards to England — Assistance 
given by Elizabeth to the foreign Protestants — Mary, 
Queen of Scots 

During most of the time that Elizabeth reigned, 
Spain was governed by that same King Philip who 
had been the husband of her sister, and who was at 
this time the richest and most powerful mcmarch in 
the world. He possessed a large portion of Europe 
and vast territories in America, where the Spaniards 
had seized upon Mexico, Chili, Peru, and the finest 
of the West India Islands. Everywhere they ruled 
the natives with a rod of iron, making them labor 
like slaves in the mines and plantations. In the 
West Indies the unhappy people had almost perished 
from the face of the earth, and the Spaniards brought 
negroes from Africa to supply their place. This was 
the beginning of the slave trade between Africa and 
America; and a brave English seaman. Captain John 
Hawkins, was not ashamed to steal negroes on the 
coast of Guinea and sell them to the Spaniards of the 
West Indies. 

AVhen Elizabeth first came to the throne, Philip 
ask-ed her to marry him. But she had no inclination 
to share her power with any one, and least of all 
with Philip ; and when he found that she was not at 
heart a Roman Catholic he no longer wished to ally 
himself with her. He married a princess of France, 
and from that time was always, secretly or openly, 
the enemy of England. During the earlier years of 
Elizabeth's reign, Philip was so much engaged in 



Merrill's English history ^35 

making war on his own subjects in the Netherlands 
that he could not prosecute his designs against her 
kingdom. The Netherlands then comprised the 
countries we now call Holland and Belgium and the 
northeast of France ; the inhabitants excelled all the 
nations of Europe in commerce and manufactures, 
and England had a greater trade with them than 
with all the rest of the world beside. 

They had been subject to the crown of Spain for 
many years, but enjoyed their own laws and much 
freedom till Protestantism began to spread among 
them. Then the Spaniards persecuted them fear- 
fully ; and thousands of the people fled to England, 
made it their home, and by degrees taught English- 
men to excel like themselves in the manufacture of 
silk and wool. Those who remained behind boldly 
took up arms against their oppressors, and many 
Englishmen by the queen's permission went to help 
them. Elizabeth also assisted them with large sums 
of money; and after many years, and a very hard 
struofpfle, the inhabitants of what we now call Hoi- 
land succeeded in gaining independence, formed a 
state of their own which they called The Seven 
United Provinces, and enjoyed their own laws and 
religion in peace. 

France was no more friendly to England than was 
Spain, but the King of France generally kept at 
peace with Elizabeth because he had so much to do 
at home in trying, like Philip, to subdue his Protes- 
tant subjects. More than two millions of Frenchmen 
had become Protestants, and Elizabeth was a good 
friend to them as well as to the men of Holland. 

Everywhere the Protestants looked up to her as a 



13^ MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

protectress and helper, and nowhere more than in 
Scotland. Mention has been made of the little 
Queen of Scots, who was sent to the French court to 
be educated with the Prince Francis, to whom she 
was betrothed. It was a very bad school for the 
little Queen Mary, as the court of France was not 
only the most splendid and luxurious, but the most 
wicked in Europe; and the mother of the prince, 
Catharine de Medicis, was infamous above all women 
of her time for cruelty and deceit. She taught her 
sons to be as false and cruel as herself. Mary grew 
up very witty and accomplished, and exquisitely 
beautiful. Every one admired her, though some 
feared she had been infected by the vices of her as- 
sociates, and concealed an artful ruthless character 
behind that veil of grace and beauty. 

The Roman Catholic party looked upon her as the 
rightful Queen of England, for they declared that 
Henry the Eighth had never been lawfully married 
to Anne Boleyn, and that her daughter Elizabeth 
could have no title to the crown. As soon as Queen 
Mary of England died, the Queen of Scots and her 
husband had taken the title of Queen and King of 
England. This was a great insult to Elizabeth and 
to the English people, who chose that Elizabeth 
should be their queen ; and it w^as never forgiven or 
forgotten. As long as Mary of Scotland lived, Eng- 
lishmen always suspected her of plotting to dethrone 
Elizabeth, that she might be queen herself and force 
them to obey the Pope again. This plan had really 
been formed for Mary by her French kinsmen when 
she was too young to form any plans for herself; but 
her husband. King Francis the Second, died, and in 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 37 

156 1 j\Iary left France and came back to reign over 
her own kingdom of Scotland. 

She was then nineteen years old. While she had 
been in France a great change had taken place 
among her Scottish subjects, most of whom had be- 
come Protestants. Mary was much displeased when 
she found this to be the case ; but she was not pow- 
erful enough to put down the Protestants, so she 
allowed them to follow their own religion, and was 
content to place the government chiefly in the hands 
of her half-brother, James Stuart, Earl of Murray, 
the most esteemed of the Protestant lords. 

As long as Mary followed his advice her reign 
was honorable and prosperous. The Scots could not 
help admiring and liking their queen, but many of 
them were so unreasonable as to expect her at once 
to give up the religion in which she had been edu- 
cated and become a Protestant like themselves; and 
they were ready to murder the priests who said mass 
in her chapel. While Murray governed he preserved 
peace, but he ceased to be friendly to Mary when he 
found that she was going to marry her cousin. Lord 
Damley, a foolish vicious youth of eighteen, who 
had nothing to recommend him but his good looks. 

CHAPTER XLII 

Reign of Elizabeth — {continued) 

Murder of Rizzio and Darnley — The Queen of Scots is De- 
throned — She flies to England, and is Imprisoned there 

The Queen of Scots soon repented her unwise 
choice of a husband. Darnley behaved very ill, and 
because Mary would not make him equal in power 



13S Merrill's English history 

with herself he revenged himself by murdering her 
favorite secretary, an Italian named Rizzio, who 
had, as he supposed, persuaded the queen not to give 
him all the authority he desired to have. Some 
Scottish lords, who were offended because the queen 
preferred Rizzio 's company to theirs, assisted Darn- 
ley in the murder. The unfortunate secretary was 
butchered almost in his mistress's presence. Mary 
earnestly entreated for his life ; but when they told 
her he was already dead, " I will dry my tears, then, 
and study revenge," was her answer. Mary never 
could endure her husband after this, though for a 
little while they seemed to be reconciled. 

The queen had now given her confidence to one 
of the most wicked men in Scotland, Lord Bothwell. 
Her husband, who was ill with the small-pox, was 
lodged apart from the palace, in a lone house called 
the Kirk of Field. There the queen visited him 
daily, and with seeming affection. One evening, in 
February, 1567, she took leave of him as usual, but it 
was for the last time. Bothwell had already con- 
veyed a quantity of gunpowder into the room be- 
neath Darnley's apartment, and two hours after 
midnight he came by stealth to the house, laid a long 
lighted match to the powder, and withdrew to a safe 
distance. Presently afterward, all Edinburgh was 
startled out of sleep by what seemed to be the shock 
of an earthquake. When day dawned, the house 
in which Darnley had lodged was found blown to 
pieces, and his dead body and that of his page were 
lyr'ng in the adjacent fields. 

Scotland was filled with horror at this murder, of 
which every one justly accused Bothwell; but the 



Merrill's English history 139 

horror was greatly increased when, three months 
afterward, the queen married her husband's murderer. 
The people rose in arms and forced her to send Both- 
well away; and some were not contented with this, 
but shut her up in Lochleven Castle, and made her 
give up her kingdom to her little son, James the 
Sixth, an infant of a year old. Murray, who had 
left Scotland, was called back to be Regent for his 
little nephew. 

All Scotland w^as divided into king's men and 
queen's men. The queen's men wanted Mary to be 
released from prison and to be queen again, now that 
Both well had left the country; the king's men were 
determined she should not reign. And although 
Mary escaped from Lochleven, and found herself in 
a few days at the head of six thousand men, Murray 
quickly routed her forces. The queen watched the 
battle, and when she saw all was lost put her horse 
to its speed and rode sixty miles that day to the 
shores of the Solway Firth. Thence she passed over 
into England, and proceeded to Carlisle, confident 
that she should find a refuge with Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth was greatly perplexed when she heard 
that Mary had come to England. Though she did 
not at all approve of subjects dethroning their sov- 
ereign, as the Scots had done, yet she did not wish 
that Mary should be able to crush Murray and the 
rest of the Scottish Protestants. She would not re- 
ceive her at court ; partly because she suspected that 
Mary had been concerned in the murder of her hus- 
band Darnley; and partly because she had heard that 
Mary's exquisite grace and wit and sprightly manners 
captivated every one who came near her. She was 



140 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

not inclined to give the Scottish Queen an opportunity 
of making too many friends among the noblemen 
and gentry of England. And yet she would not bid 
her leave England, lest she should take refuge in 
France or Spain, and persuade the princes of those 
countries to replace her on the throne of Scotland by 
force of arms. Elizabeth knew very well that, if 
once French or Spanish troops obtained a footing in 
Scotland, they would use it as the best starting-point 
from which to invade England. 

The best, because the most just, plan would have 
been to let Mary go away at once wherever she 
pleased; for, whatever evil she might have com- 
mitted, she was not Elizabeth's subject, and it was 
most unfair to make her suffer for having taken ref- 
uge in England in the hour of her terror and dis- 
tress. But Burleigh, and the other wise councillors 
who advised Queen Elizabeth, thought Mary ought 
not to come to court, and ought not to be allowed to 
leave England for a year at least. 

Elizabeth, however, said that some of Mary's 
friends, and some of the Scottish lords who were 
against her, should come to England, and tell all 
they knew, or could find out, about Darnley's mur- 
der; and, if it should be proved that Mary was in- 
nocent, she would help her to get her kingdom back 
again. The Queen of Scots did not much like this, 
but she gave her consent, and some time was spent 
in searching out the truth about the murder. 

Murray, who came forward as his sister's accuser, 
produced a number of letters from Mary to Bothwell, 
which were so very bad that, if the Queen of Scots 
wrote them, she must have been capable of almost 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY I4I 

any crime. But Mary said they were none of hers, 
and that they must have been written by some one 
who could imitate her handwriting. And to this day 
no one knows whether that is true or not. Eliza- 
beth said at last that she did not think Murray had 
proved his charges against Queen Mary, and yet she 
did not think he and his friends had done wrong in 
depriving her of the crown. So Murray went back 
to be Regent in Scotland, and Mary was obliged to 
remain in England. 

Elizabeth placed her first under the charge of Lord 
Shrewsbury, and then of other gentlemen, who were 
forced to take great care that she did not get away. 
Whenever she rode out hunting or hawking, accord- 
ing to the fashion of ladies in those times, armed 
men were in attendance lest she should take that 
opportunity of escaping. It was a weary captivity 
both to the unfortunate queen and to those who were 
obliged to take care of her. Part of the time she 
lived at Bolton Castle, and at other times at Sheffield, 
Tutbury, and Fotheringay. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

Reign of Elizabeth — {cojitimicd) 

Plots in favor of the Queen of Scots — Her Execution 
(From 1568 to 1587) 

The Queen of Scots did not willingly submit to be 
held in captivity. She had a great deal of property 
in France, so that she was able to secure the services 
of many persons, who labored continually to stir up 
plots against Queen Elizabeth, in order that her 
government might be overturned and the Queen of 



142 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Scots might become Queen of England. Much Eng- 
lish blood was shed in this cause ; for even from her 
prison Mary found means to correspond with the 
Roman Catholic lords and gentlemen, and to rouse 
them to take her part. 

The first who rebelled against Elizabeth, partly in 
order to set up Mary, and partly to restore Catholi- 
cism in England, were the Earls of Northumberland 
and Westmoreland ; but their rebellion was soon put 
down, and many of their followers were put to death. 
The next nobleman drawn into rebellion was the 
Duke of Norfolk. Of all the English nobility he 
was the highest in rank and the most beloved ; and 
it was long before Elizabeth could bring herself to 
order his execution. The Parliament and the people 
said that Mary ought to be put to death also. To 
this Elizabeth would not consent; but she said that, 
since the Queen of Scots had stirred up her own sub- 
jects to rebel against her, she would never set her 
free. 

In all the plans which were formed, the Pope, 
Spain, or France, had some hand. The Pope issued 
a bull by which he declared Elizabeth accursed and 
forbade her subjects to obey her; and he sent over 
many English Jesuits to go up and down among 
the Roman Catholics and teach them to incite opposi- 
tion to the queen. They came over in various dis- 
guises ; many were discovered and put to death, but 
more still continued to come ; and at last the English 
began to look on all their Roman Catholic country- 
men as traitors, only waiting for a favorable oppor- 
tunity to revolt against Elizabeth. 

Thus many 5^ears went on, till, about fourteen years 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 43 

after Norfolk's death, a most daring plot was found 
out. The leader in it was a young Roman Catholic 
gentleman named Babington. Queen Elizabeth was 
to be murdered, and imm^ediately afterward a Span- 
ish army was to invade Englajid, set Mary on the 
throne, and put down the Protestants. 

Babington was executed for his treason, and Bur 
leigh and the other ministers of state declared that 
Mary ought to be put to death too, because she 
shared in the plot. The Queen of Scots was put on 
her trial, found guilty, and condemned to death, 
much to the joy of the people, who looked upon her 
as the most dangerous enemy of their country and 
their religion. Elizabeth was very unwilling to let 
the sentence be executed. She wished Mary dead, 
but not by a public execution. After several weeks, 
she at length signed the death-warrant, and gave it 
to Davison, the secretary of state. Burleigh and the 
other ministers immediately sent it to Fotheringay 
Castle, and ordered that it should be put into exe- 
cution without delay ; but they did not tell their mis- 
tress what they had done. 

When Elizabeth heard that Mary was dead, she 
affected the most extreme sorrow, refused to see 
Burleigh and the other councillors, and ordered 
Davison to be imprisoned in the Tower. We should 
have respected Elizabeth more if she had been hon- 
est, and said plainly that she was grieved to put Mary 
to death but saw no other means of preserving her 
people and kingdom in peace and safety. 

As for the Queen of Scots, she never appeared to 
such advantage as in the last scene of her life. She 
received the intelligence that she was to die with the 



144 Merrill's English history 

utmost firmness, comforted her weeping attendants, 
and lay down quietly to rest. Rising very early the 
next morning-, she spent the hours in devotion till 
the sheriff came to lead her to the great hall of the 
castle. It was hung with black, and a scaffold stood 
in the midst, on which were the block, the axe, and 
the executioner. Mary looked on them without 
shrinking. The Dean of Peterborough came to her 
with entreaties that she would at this last hour re- 
nounce the Catholic faith, but Mary replied that she 
would die in the religion in which she had lived. 
She prayed for her son and for Queen Elizabeth, 
recited some prayers from the offices of the Roman 
Church, then quietly put off her veil and mantle, and 
laid her head upon the block. Age and ill-health, 
and the sorrows of eighteen years' captivity, had 
robbed her of the beauty for which she had been so 
remarkable ; but she preserved to the last her grace- 
ful and majestic demeanor, and none could see with- 
out grief and pity the sad ending of a life which 
might have been so honorable and happy. 

When the executioner held up the head, and the 
customary words were pronounced, " So perish all 
Queen Elizabeth's enemies!" few of the spectators 
could stifle their tears and sighs sufficiently to say 
Amen. 

CHAPTER XLIV 

Reign of Elizabeth — {continued') 

The Spanish Armada 
(From 1587 to 1588) 

For some years before the execution of the Queen 
of Scots, Philip of Spain had been making immense 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 



T45 



preparations of ships, arms, and warlike stores of all 
kinds. He said that these were intended for the war 
in the Netherlands and the protection of his Amer- 
ican colonies; but no one believed him, for it was 
well known that his heart was set upon the conquest 
of England. There were 130 magnificent war-ships, 
which carried a numerous army of soldiers and sail- 
ors, and were attended by a fleet of transports laden 
with the* arms and tools necessary for sieges and 
battles on land, and also with abundance of whips, 
fetters, thumbscrews, and other instruments of tor- 
ture, with which to punish and convert the heretic 
English. 

Another army, under command of the Duke of 
Parma, Philip's 'greatest general, waited in the 
Netherlands, ready to set sail when the time should 
come. But now the Hollanders returned the good 
offices of Queen Elizabeth; they blocked up the 
ports of the Netherlands with their ships, and Par- 
ma and his army waited in vain. 

The first thing done by the queen, when she heard 
of the danger which threatened her kingdom, was to 
send Drake to the coast of Spain with thirty ships. 

With these he contrived to destroy one hundred 
vessels laden with stores of war, and also to intercept 
and capture one of Philip's largest treasure-ships. 
Then he came home merrily, saying that he had 
"singed the King of Spain's beard." He had, in 
fact, done him so much mischief that the sailing of 
the expedition was delayed a whole year. But in the 
summer of 1588 all was ready. The Spaniards called 
their armament "The Invincible Armada," for they 
felt certain of victory. "One battle on sea/' said 



10 



146 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

they, " and one on land, and the country is ours. " 
They forgot that sometimes " the battle is not to the 
strong." 

In England, prayers were offered in every parish 
for Divine help; and the brave spirit of the nation 
rose the higher in presence of the great danger. 

All came forward, high and low, rich and poor; 
some brought money, others gave their ships, thou- 
sands of every rank volunteered to serve anywhere, 
on sea or on shore ; not only Protestants but Catho- 
lics also, for they did not like Philip, though they 
were of his religion. Eighty thousand men were 
soon in arms for the defence of England. One-third 
of this force was encamped at Tilbury, near Graves- 
end, to prevent the Spaniards from advancing upon 
London. There the queen joined them. 

Elizabeth was growing old, but she retained all 
the vigor and spirit of her youth. Arrayed in armor 
she rode on horseback between the lines, and told 
her soldiers that she had come among them, not for 
recreation, but to live or die among them. " I have 
resolved," continued she, "to lay down, for God, my 
kingdom and my people, my honor and my blood, 
even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a 
weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a 
king, and of a king of England too, and think foul 
scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe 
should dare to invade the borders of my realm." 
Shouts of loyal affection rent the air as the queen's 
voice died away. " Who would not fight for such a 
queen? " said the soldiers one to another. 

The fleet was placed under the command of Lord 
Howard of Effingham, and with him were Drake 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 47 

and Frobisher and Hawkins, and many other famous 
seamen. Watch was kept night and day along the 
coast, and barrels of tar raised on tall poles were 
placed on all the loftiest hills, ready to be kindled so 
soon as the first glimpse of the Spanish fleet appeared. 
On the 20th of July, it was descried sailing slowly 
down the Channel in form of a half-moon, the ships 
showing like castles, they were so strong and tall. 
Then the tar-barrels were lighted on the highlands 
of Cornwall and Devon, and, as the flames flew from 
height to height through all England, the people 
knew that their great enemy had come at last. 

On the 2ist, the attack began, and the Spaniards 
were surprised and alarmed to see how much more 
easily and swiftly the English ships were worked 
than their own. The very size of the Spanish vessels 
rendered them almost unmanageable in the narrow 
seas — and they soon ran foul of one another. For 
eighteen days the Spanish admiral, Medina Sidonia, 
kept slowly on his way eastward; and all that time 
there were perpetual small fights, the Englishmen 
hovering about him, and attacking his fleet whenever 
they could find an opportunity. In this way they 
had already damaged, sunk, or taken several vessels, 
and among them a ship which contained a large 
cargo of instruments of torture. It hardly needed 
this to inflame the courage of the people ; but, if 
anything had been wanting to make them fight to 
the death in defence of their homes and their 
churches, the sight of this cargo would have sup- 
plied it. 

On the 8th of August, the battle between the fleets 
became general and lasted the whole day. The 



148 Merrill's English history 

English were entirely victorious. Their enemies 
lost all hope of conquering England for this time; 
the only care of Medina Sidonia was to get safely 
back to Spain with the remainder of his ships. But 
there was no returning by the way he had come ; 
Dutch ships as well as English covered all the 
Channel, so the Spanish admiral resolved to go 
round by the north of Scotland. A more terrible foe 
awaited him there — an awful tempest, which sunk 
some of his ships at once, drove others on the rocks 
of Norway, where they were broken to pieces, and 
wrecked about fifty on the Hebrides and the coasts 
of Ireland and Scotland. Of all the grand Armada 
which had sailed triumphantly from the ports of 
Spain four months before, hardly one vessel returned 
uninjured, and the greater number had been utterl}'' 
destroyed. The mourning in Spain was universal. 
In England, one voice of joy and thanksgiving rang 
through all the land. 



CHAPTER XLV 

Reign of Elizabeth — {concluded^ 

Final Attempts of Philip II to Conquer England — Rebellions 
in Ireland — Death of Essex, 1601 — Death of the Queen, 
1603 

(From 1588 to 1603) 

Philip still hoped to conquer England by attacking 
it from Ireland. A large number of the Irish were 
always in rebellion against the English govern- 
ment, and were ready and eager to join the Span- 
iards. A fine fleet and army were prepared, but 
they had hardly left the ports of Spain when an 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY I49 

awful storm shattered the fleet, and the expedition 
came to an end. 

Another time Elizabeth prevented Philip's designs 
by sending Lords Howard and Essex to attack his 
great naval port, Cadiz, and to burn the ships col- 
lected there. At last, Philip the Second died; his 
son, Philip the Third, succeeded him and carried on 
the war with England, but Elizabeth used to say she 
could not feel any fear of a prince who had been 
twelve years learning his alphabet. 

Ireland was the great care and grief of her latter 
days. It was almost as wild and miserable as it had 
been in the days of Henry the Second. There were 
three principal rebellions during Elizabeth's reign, 
besides many smaller ones. The rebel chieftains 
were O'Neill, Desmond, and Tyrone. O'Neill and 
Desmond, each in their turn, fell victims to the re- 
venge of the men whom they or their followers had 
injured. Tyrone's rebellion lasted the longest, and 
was not subdued without great difficulty. But at last 
Tyrone came to England and made his submission ; 
and Ireland became a little more quiet. Much of 
the land had become a mere desert, for the people 
had been fighting, burning, and wasting for years, 
instead of tilling the ground ; and they were reduced 
to a shocking state of famine and misery. 

The rebellion of Tyrone helped to bring about the 
ruin of the queen's favorite. Lord Essex. He had 
been sent to Ireland to reduce Tyrone to obedience ; 
but the queen thought that Essex took very little 
pains to do his duty. Her rebukes made him so 
angry that he left his post without her permission, 
and came over to England that he might justify him- 



150 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

self. Elizabeth was incensed at his presumption; 
"and, althoLigh she afterward forgave him, she did not 
bestow on him the same favor as formerly. This 
wounded the pride of Essex so much that he even 
endeavored to raise an insurrection in London. For 
this treason he was tried and condemned to death. 

The queen was greatly grieved for him. She had 
once given him a ring, and desired him to send it to 
her if he should ever fall into great trouble and dis- 
grace, and she would forgive him. The ring had not 
been returned to her, and she thought he was too 
proud to ask forgiveness. But Essex had sent it. 
Unhappily, it had fallen into the hands of a lady who 
was base enough to keep it back, because she hated 
him and wished that he should die. Two years 
afterward, when she lay on her own death-bed, she 
confessed to the queen what she had done. Eliza- 
beth was in an agony of grief and anger; she even 
said to the dying woman these terrible words : " God 
may forgive you, but I never can! " 

From that time the queen seemed to lose her usual 
cheerfulness and composure of mind. Her health 
was rapidly declining, and on the 24th of March, 
1603, she breathed her last, being then nearly 
seventy years old. 

Few sovereigns have been so deeply regretted by 
their subjects. They loved her, not only, or chiefly, 
because her rule had been so wise and prosperous, 
but because she loved her people and heartily desired 
to make them happy. She was naturally of a vehe- 
ment, imperious character, and did not spare sharp 
rebukes to her courtiers, and even to her council, 
if they displeased her; but this warm temper was 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 151 

seldom or never seen beyond the bounds of the 
palace. 

Elizabeth delighted to make journeys from one 
part of England to another, and to visit the towns 
and country seats which lay in her way. Every- 
where the people came joyfully and without any fear 
to see her and to wait upon her — private persons and 
magistrates, men, women, and children. She would 
not suffer the meanest of her subjects to be shut out 
from her presence. If they had anything to ask or to 
complain of, she listened kindly, took their petitions 
with her own hand, and assured them that their 
affairs should be attended to. Her visits were de- 
lightful to the country people for another reason; 
they were always allowed some share in the sports 
and pageants which were prepared for her enter- 
tainment. 

On entering a town, Elizabeth was often welcomed 
by the citizens with a present of money. On one of 
these occasions, when the mayor of Coventry pre- 
sented her with a handsome and well-filled purse, 
the queen replied : " I have few such gifts. It is a 
hundred pounds in gold." " Please your grace," an- 
swered the mayor, "it is a great deal more." 
"What is that?" she asked. "It is," said he, "the 
hearts of all your loving subjects." "We thank 
you, Mr. Mayor," replied the queen; "it is a great 
deal more indeed." 



152 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 



CHAPTER XLVI 

State of England in Queen Elizabeth's Time — The City of 
London — Mines — Great Writers — East India Company — 
Sir Thomas Gresham — Great Power of the Queen in 
Church and State 

Even tinder the wise government of Queen Eliza- 
beth's ministers, the extreme north of England con- 
tinued to be in a very wild condition, for the people 
were almost always at war with their Scotch neigh- 
bors. The Scots plundered the villages, and even 
attacked the towns, whenever they could find an op- 
portunity; the Englishmen did not fail to revenge 
themselves, and a great deal of blood was shed on 
both sides. In the valley of the North Tyne and the 
adjoining dales, men armed themselves when they 
went out to watch their flocks and to labor in the 
fields. Besides this border warfare of the Scots and 
English, the district was infested with bands of 
robbers, v\^ho plundered wherever they could on 
both sides of the border. 

In all other parts of England the people were in 
peace, and increased much in wealth and comfort 
during the reiofn of Elizabeth. Even in her sister's 
time, the Spaniards who came over with King Philip 
were astonished at the good cheer of the farmers and 
shopkeepers. "These English," they said, "have 
their houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare 
commonly as well as the king. " By " sticks and 
dirt," they meant walls of clay or a mixture of clay 
and straw. In the days of Mary and Elizabeth, 
bricks were not much used except for large, hand- 
some houses. Where there was plenty of wood, the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 153 

people built their houses of substantial timber; 
where there was little timber, they used clay. 

Wood had been used in such quantities for build- 
ing and fuel, and for so many hundred years, that 
the forests which had once covered England were 
now almost all destroyed, and in many parts of the 
country the people hardly knew what to use for fuel. 

Coal was little thought of, except in the neighbor- 
hood of the coal-mines, and in a few places to which 
it was conveyed by sea. Even in London it was not 
much used, because the people disliked the smoke 
of the coal-fires. In the country, the laborers were 
only now beginning to have chimneys to their cot- 
tages. Old men complained that the people used to 
be much stronger when they hardly used fires except 
to cook their food, and when they let the smoke find 
its way out at the door or window or by a hole in 
the roof, than now when they had a chimney to carry 
it up and wanted to sit by the fire in cold weather. 
Even in the best houses a carpet was a great rarity; 
the floors were finely polished, or else they were 
strewn with rushes. This was an uncleanly prac- 
tice, because few persons could afford to have fresh 
rushes every day or even every week. On festival 
da3^s the pavement of the churches was covered 
with green rushes. 

London was a very small place then compared 
with what it is now. The city was enclosed within 
a wall, and at all the chief points there were strong 
gates. At a certain hour every evening the gates 
were locked and barred, and armed men watched by 
them till morning. The shops in the streets were 
open, like booths, and at every shop there hung a 



154 Merrill's English history 

picture or an image, by way of sign. Old London 
Bridge was the only bridge over the river; it had 
shops and houses on each side of it, and there was 
always a ghastly sight to be seen there — the heads 
and skulls of men executed for treason. During 
hundreds of years it was the custom to expose the 
heads of traitors on London Bridge, and leave them 
there to moulder and decay. 

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, new mines of 
copper and other minerals were discovered ; and the 
first brass manufactory was set up in England. The 
first paper-mill also was erected, at Dartford, in 
Kent. 

The books written by the men who lived in Queen 
Elizabeth's time are still the instruction and delight 
of Englishmen. Among the famous writers of that 
period were the poets Spenser, Shakespeare, and 
Ben Jonson, and the philosopher Francis Bacon. 

The East India Company was founded in the reign 
of Elizabeth. It was at first only for trade to India 
and China, but it long ruled all India, and was by 
far the most wealthy and powerful body of merchants 
in the world. Elizabeth held in great esteem the 
chief of London merchants, Sir Thomas Gresham; 
she called him "my merchant," and visited him like 
a friend. And when Gresham built his great Ex- 
change, and made a present of it to his fellow-citi- 
zens, the queen went in state to open it and gave it 
the name of the Royal Exchange. 

With all the wisdom and the good qualities of this 
great sovereign, she had some follies. She liked 
to have her courtiers address her as if she were 
young and beautiful, even after she had become 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 55 

an old woman. She was very fond of amusing her- 
self with the offers of marriage made to her by for- 
eign princes, and would go on exchanging letters 
and presents with her suitors when she had no in- 
tention of marrying any of them. " I will have 
here but one mistress, and no master," she said to 
Leicester, one day, when he spoke to her of marriage; 
and she was indeed the one mistress of her kingdom. 
We have already heard that in the reign of Henry 
the Seventh the kings of England began to be 
more powerful than ever before, because neither 
House of Parliament opposed them. Elizabeth was 
the last sovereign who possessed this great power; 
the Parliament was already wishing for more au- 
thority, but the queen governed so wisely that neither 
lords nor commons thought fit to resist her 'will. 
She exacted strict obedience in matters of religion 
as well as in the affairs of the state, and established 
a tribunal, called the Court of High Commission, to 
inquire into offences against the laws of the Church. 
In time, this court became as oppressive and created 
as much discontent as that of the Star Chamber,* 
but not in the reign of Elizabeth. She was the last 
of the Tudor sovereigns, who had governed England 
since the accession of Henry the Seventh in 1485, a 
period of one hundred and eighteen years. 

* The Court of the Star Chamber (see Chap. XXX) dealt with offences 
against the king and the laws of the land. Since the time of Henry the 
Seventh, its powers had been gradually increasing. It was permitted 
to inflict any punishment short of death. 



156 Merrill's English history 



CHAPTER XLVII 

Reign of James I — James, First King of Great Britain, 1603 
— State of Scotland — The English Puritans and Roman 
Catholics — The Gunpowder Plot, 1605 
(From 1603 to 1606) 

At the death of Queen Elizabeth, the crown of 
England passed to the Scottish royal family of Stuart. 
James Stuart (who was James the Sixth of Scotland), 
the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and great-grandson 
of Henry the Seventh's eldest daughter, Margaret, 
now became King James the First of England. From 
this time the English sovereigns have been the rul- 
ers of Great Britain, and not only of England and 
Wales. 

After the accession of James the First, England 
and Scotland made no more war on one another, but 
it was long before the people of the two countries 
learned to be as friendly as natives of the same island 
ought to have been. Scotland was then a poor and 
wild country, where the nobles were constantly quar- 
relling among themselves. If one Scottish gentle- 
man received an affront from another, he summoned 
all his friends and tenants and made a little war of 
his own upon the offender, besieging his house, wast- 
ing his lands, and killing him if he could. 

The farmers were called away from tilling the 
ground to fight in the quarrels of their lords ; and so 
Scotland remained barren and ill-cultivated. Rich, 
fertile England looked down scornfully on its sis- 
ter kingdom ; and Englishmen, who were proud of 
the good order of their country and of the high place 
they had won for themselves among the nations of 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 15 7 

Europe, were angry that the Scots should claim to 
be equal with them. The Scots were proud of their 
country, too, and they were very inuch afraid they 
would lose their consequence as a nation now that 
their king had a richer and more powerful kingdom. 

They were jealous also lest their laws or their 
Church should be interfered with. The Scottish 
reformers had abolished the government of the 
Church by bishops, and they spoke against the Eng- 
lish liturgy almost as if it had been a service of 
idolaters. They were afraid that, when they became 
one people with the English, England would try to 
make them have bishops and a liturgy. 

King James had been in the habit of talking as if 
he despised the Church of England; but the Scottish 
preachers had so often opposed his wishes, and even 
insulted him, that he had come to think it would be 
a good thing if they were governed by loyal, peace- 
able men, like the English bishops. A great many 
of the Puritans in England, who were like the Scots 
in their notions of what a Church ought to be, had 
been hoping that James would show them some 
favor. The Roman Catholics also looked for kind- 
ness at the hands of the new king, for he had treat- 
ed their Scottish brethren very mildly. 

It would have been impossible to please both Pu- 
ritans and Catholics, and James soon showed that 
he was not inclined to favor either party. He held 
a conference at Hampton Court palace, with some 
of the leading Puritans and some of the bishops 
and clergy, and when he found that the Puritans 
wished to alter the Prayer-Book to their liking, or 
not to use it at all, he entirely refused to allow them 



158 Merrill's English history 

any such liberty. They objected to be governed by 
bishops; he told them what they really meant was, 
"No bishop, no king." 

This conference had one good result: all parties 
were agreed that the English translations of the 
Bible needed to be corrected ; and the king appointed 
fifty of the most learned divines in the kingdom to 
make a new version from the original languages. 
This work employed them during several years; 
and the result was the present English Bible. 

The laws against the Roman Catholics James al- 
lowed to remain in full force, and some of them, in 
their disappointment, made plots against the king. 
The first plot was hard to understand, for there were 
Catholics, Puritans, and men of no religion in it. 
They wanted to dethrone James and set up his 
cousin. Lady Arabella Stuart, in his stead. Sir 
Walter Raleigh was accused of having something 
to do with this plot, and was condemned to lose his 
head. But the sentence was thought to be very un- 
just, and was not then executed ; Raleigh remained 
a prisoner in the Tower. 

The next conspiracy was the famous " Gunpowder 
Treason and Plot." A few unscrupulous Catho- 
lics devised a plan for blowing up the king, the 
royal family, and the Parliament. Parliament was 
to meet on the 5th of November, 1605. Long be- 
fore that day, the conspirators secretly conveyed 
thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into a vault beneath 
the parliament-house, and covered them over with 
coal and wood. Guido (or Guy) Fawkes was to lay 
the train and light the matches when the fatal hour 
arrived. But one of the plotters wished to save the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 159 

life of his kinsman, Lord Monnteagle. A few days 
before the 5th of November, that gentleman received 
a letter in an unknown hand, warning him not to 
attend at the opening of Parliament; "for," said the 
letter, " they shall receive a terrible blow this parlia- 
ment, and yet they shall not see who hurts them." 

Lord Mounteagle carried the letter to the king's 
council, who laid' it before their master; and James, 
remembering the fate of his unhappy father, thought 
the terrible unseen blow was to be caused by gun- 
powder. The vaults under the parliament-house 
were searched, and there stood Guy Fawkes, Avith 
his dark lantern. In his pockets were slow-matches, 
tinder, and touchwood, all ready for his murderous 
work; and under the coal and wood were found the 
barrels of gunpowder. 

As soon as the other plotters heard that Fawkes 
was taken, they made haste to escape into the coun- 
try, but all of them were found in a few days. Some 
died in resisting the officers who went to apprehend 
them, and the others were executed as traitors. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

Reign of James I — {contmued) 

His Children: Prince Henry; "Baby Charles;" Elizabeth, 
Queen of Bohemia 

By the time James had been King of England 
three or four years, the joy with which the nation had. 
welcomed him was changed to disappointment and 
in many minds to contempt. In Scotland James had 
been very poor; a yearly pension allowed him by 
Queen Elizabeth was the chief part of his income, 



i6o Merrill's English history 

and he had often been obliged to defend himself 
and maintain his power against the assaults of the 
rebellious nobles. 

He had guided himself so wisely through those 
times of poverty and danger that Englishmen thought 
he would be a prudent and courageous king, a fitting 
successor to the wise queen whom they had lost. 
But prosperity seemed to have spoiled King James. 
He was overjoyed when he succeeded to the crown 
of wealthy loyal England, and from that time he gave 
much of his time to amusing himself. Half of his 
days were spent in field sports, cock-fighting, bait- 
ing of bears, lions, and bulls. He was good-natured, 
but he hated trouble so much that, if his favorite 
courtiers wished him to commit an act of injustice, 
he would do it to be rid of their importunities. 

He was always surrounded by favorites, on whom 
he lavished money, lands, and titles. When Queen 
Elizabeth made a man a peer or a knight, it was for 
some great service rendered to the country or for 
some merit which she saw in him. Those titles 
were highly valued ; but sensible men were ashamed 
to take titles from James when they had done nothing 
to deserve them, and many persons paid large sums 
of money for leave to refuse these worthless honors. 
Other men, who wished for a title, were compelled 
to buy one ; and either way of getting money was 
agreeable to King James, for he was always in debt. 
His wife, Queen Anne, did not help him out of his 
difficulties; she was fond of pleasure and extrav- 
agant. A great deal of money was wasted in riot- 
ous living at the court; even the ladies joined in the 
nightly revels. There was very little in the man- 



Merrill's English history i6i 

ners or appearance of the king which could excite 
respect. His tongue was too large for his mouth, 
so that he did not speak plainly; he was very awk- 
ward, and so timorous that the sight of a drawn 
sword made him tremble, and he caused all his 
clothes to be lined with wadding lest he should be 
stabbed by some traitor. 

He liked to mix the most unseemly jests even 
with his gravest conversation, nicknamed himself 
and his courtiers, and allowed his favorite, George 
Villiers, to call him " Dad" and " Gossip." He was 
very learned, and was fond of showing his learning 
by mingling scraps of Latin and Greek with his talk. 
With all this, some sparkles of sense and spirit 
shone out occasionally; but he provoked the Eng- 
lish by boasting of his own wisdom and deriding 
Queen Elizabeth, as if he were a greater sovereign 
than she had been. 

The king's eldest son. Prince Henry, was quite 
unlike his father. The people loved him dearly; 
he was a youth of the highest spirit, longing to take 
part in some noble enterprise, and especially inter- 
ested in all that related to ships and sea affairs. 

In the midst of the vices of the court, he led an 
exemplary life, and the people looked forward to the 
days when he would sit on his father's throne, and 
hoped that he would be all that an English king 
should be. But these bright hopes were blighted ; 
Prince Henry died in 1612, at the age of eighteen. 
He had one brother, a sickly little boy named 
Charles. The king feared that Charles would not 
live to gi'ow up; he made him his pet child, and 
called him always "Baby Charles." Even when 
1 1 



l62 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Charles grew up strong and tall and became a grave, 
stately man, the foolish king always called him 
"Baby." 

King James had also a daughter, Elizabeth, who 
married the German prince Frederic, Count Pala- 
tine. His territory, which was called the Palatinate, 
lay near the Rhine, having Heidelberg for its cap- 
ital city. The marriage pleased the English, be- 
cause Frederic was a Protestant prince, and they 
had feared that James would marry all his children 
to Roman Catholics. But it was not a very fortu- 
nate marriage. Elizabeth was remarkably beauti- 
ful, but not very prudent; and at the end of a few, 
years she persuaded her husband to accept the king- 
dom of Bohemia. Bohemia was governed by the 
Emperor of Germany; it was inhabited partly by 
Protestants and partly by Roman Catholics, and the 
Protestants, who thought themselves ill-used, resolved 
to have a Protestant king. They offered their crown 
to Count Frederic, who was unwise enough to accept 
it without taking steps to maintain himself in the 
kingdom. The emperor soon drove him out of Bo- 
hemia, and then took from him his own country of 
the Palatinate ; and then unfortunate Frederic and 
Elizabeth were obliged to fly to Holland, where they 
lived upon the bounty of their friends. They had a 
great many sons and daughters; some of them will 
be mentioned in the course of this history, especially 
Prince Rupert. 

The people of England wished much to go to war 
with the emperor, but King James could not be per- 
suaded to draw the sword, even to restore his daugh- 
ter and her husband to their own territory. He was 



Merrill's English history 163 

afraid that he might displease the King of vSpain,who 
was in alliance with the emperor ; and he would not 
offend the Spaniards, because he wished to marry 
his son Charles to a Spanish princess. The thought 
of this marriage was hateful to the English nation; 
they feared that a Roman Catholic wife would in- 
cline Charles himself to change his faith, and of all 
the Roman Catholic powers they had the greatest 
dislike of Spain. But James, though a Protestant 
at heart, was proud to ally himself with so great and 
powerful a kingdom as Spain. 



CHAPTER XLIX 

Reign of James I — {contmtied) 

Villiers, Duke of Buckingham — Journey of Prince Charles to 
Spain — War — Death of James I, 1625 

(From 1606 to 1625) 

During the first nine years of the reign of James 
the First, Robert Cecil, son of the wise Lord Bur- 
leigh, was at the head of the government. But after 
his death the king threw almost all the power of the 
state into the hands, first of one favorite, 'then of an- 
other. The most mischievous of these was Georee 
Villiers, a young gentleman whose courtly accom- 
plishments and handsome person pleased the king 
so much that he quickly made him knight, viscount, 
earl, marquis, and finally Duke of Buckingham, and 
gave him many of the highest dignities in the king- 
dom. 

One of his posts of honor was that of Lord High 
Admiral of England. Buckingham wished for this 
post, and the brave Lord Howard, the admiral who 
had fought the Armada and carried the flag of Eng- 



164 Merrill's English history 

land in many a battle besides, was forced to give up 
his well-earned dignity to the young courtier, who 
knew nothing about ships or naval matters. Every 
one who wished to rise at court bought Bucking- 
ham's favor with money and presents. Unfortu- 
nately, he was as great a favorite with Prince 
Charles as with his father ; and Charles, though he 
had much good sense and many virtues, was often 
led into wrong and foolish conduct by the evil coun- 
sels of Buckingham. 

The prince was now twenty-two years of age ; his 
marriage with the Spanish princess had been talked 
about for several years, but still the Spaniards made 
delays, and Charles became impatient to have the 
affair concluded. Buckingham persuaded him to go 
to Madrid in disguise, and see his intended wife and 
her brother the king. Charles and Buckingham set 
out, calling themselves James and Thomas Smith ; 
but when they reached Spain it was found out who 
they were. The Spaniards were very much pleased 
with Charles, who was polite and grave like them- 
selves ; but they could not endure Buckingham, he 
was so rude and arrogant. His pride was offended, 
and after Charles had left Madrid he persuaded him 
to break off his marriage with the Spanish princess. 

Coming home through France, the prince saw the 
beautiful Princess Henrietta Maria and chose her for 
his wife. The Spaniards were very angry, as they 
well might be, but the English, although they did 
not like the thought of a French queen — for she also 
was a Roman Catholic — were delighted to go to war 
with Spain. King James was forced, much against 
his will, to consent to it. The war was^very badly 



Merrill's English history 165 

conducted; Englishmen fought as bravely as ever, 
but no one seemed to know how to command them. 

In the midst of the disasters, James the First died, 
March 27th, 1625, aged fifty-eight. He was bitterly 
grieved that he had plunged into a war in his old 
age, after trying through all his reign to keep at 
peace with the Spaniards. To secure their good- 
will, he had even put to death Sir Walter Raleigh. 
Of all the great seamen and commanders who had 
attacked the Spaniards during the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, Raleigh was the only survivor. He had 
been in prison during a great part of the reign of 
James, but in the year 16 16 he was allowed to come 
out of the Tower and prepare an expedition to Gui- 
ana, where, he said, he was sure he could find a gold- 
mine. But the voyage ended only in sorrow and 
loss. Raleigh was so ill that he could not command ; 
his men had a fight with the Spanish colonists, in 
which his eldest son was killed ; some of his captains 
deserted him ; and when he returned to England, 
worn down with grief and vexation, the king put 
him to death to please the Spanish ambassador, 
whose brother had been killed by Raleigh's men. 

In the time of King James, the English took pos- 
session of the Bermuda Islands, and planted colo- 
nies in Virginia and New England. Some brave 
navigators, of whom BafBn was the most celebrated, 
explored the northern part of America. 

At home, the people improved much both in man- 
ufactures and farming, and began to grow a great 
deal more wheat than before. But a time was com- 
ing when the beautiful peaceful country was to be 
made the scene of war. Many a grand old castle 



i66 Merrill's English history 

and manor-house was to be made a desolate ruin, 
many a noble estate wasted and destroyed — not by 
foreign enemies, but by Englishmen fighting against 
Englishmen. 



CHAPTER L 

Disputes in the Church and State, which led to the Civil 

War 

The government of England is called a monarchy. 
There are two kinds of monarchies : one, in which 
the sovereign governs the people just as he pleases: 
he makes the laws, and they have only to obey them. 
This is an absolute monarchy. In the other the people 
choose some of themselves to help make the laws 
which every one is to obey. This is a limited mon- 
archy, the power of the sovereign being restrained 
within bounds or limits. 

The Kine of Ens^land is a monarch with limited 
power. He can declare war, make peace, and rule 
all that concerns the relations with foreign coun- 
tries ; but he cannot by his own will and authority 
make a law or impose a tax upon his subjects. Any 
new law must first be proposed in Parliament, and, 
when both Houses of Parliament have agreed to it, 
it is laid before the king; when he has given his con- 
sent to it, it becomes a law all are bound to obey. 

Some kings have tried to make laws without the 
Parliament, and James the First often made the Eng- 
lish people angry by proclaiming that such and such 
things were to be done, and expecting his subjects 
to obey these proclamations as if they had been laws 
made in the proper legal manner. They were still 
more angry when the king said, as he often did, that 



Merrill' englishs history 167 

Parliament had no power of their own, that it was 
only by his permission they could help to make 
laws or impose taxes. James never could or would 
understand that an English king has no right to 
make his people obey a law or pay a tax to which 
Parliament has not consented; and he brought up 
his son Charles in the same mistaken notions. 

The nation had borne with James; for he was a 
timid man, who hated the trouble of governing, and 
whenever he found that he had made Parliament 
angry he drew back. Charles had great ability and 
great industry, and liked to govern as if he were an 
absolute king; but by the time that he came to the 
throne the people had made up their minds that 
it should be clearly settled how much power be- 
longed to the king", and how much to Parliament. 
Above all, they were determined that the king 
should not make laws by himself and punish his 
subjects for disobeying them, nor ask the people to 
pay him taxes which Parliament had not ordered to 
be paid. 

These things were no more than right ; and if the 
people could have been contented with these, and 
Charles would have agreed to them, it would have 
been happy for England. But the king was not 
willing to grant even these, and some of the people 
wanted much more ; they wanted not only to have 
the power which justly belonged to them, but also 
to have all the power which rightly belonged to the 
king. At last they determined to have no king, but 
to make England a republic. A republic is a state 
in which the people elect one or more persons to 
govern them. 



i68 Merrill's English history 

Most of the men who wished to take away the 
king's power were Puritans. There were two kinds 
of men called Puritans. Some men who loved the 
Church and the king were so called only because 
they led a more strict and devout life than their 
neighbors. The other kind of Puritans loved 
neither the Church nor the king; they objected to 
be governed by bishops and to use the liturgy. 

Neither Queen Elizabeth nor King James had 
liked these Puritans at all; they had often enjoined 
the bishops to make them obey the rules of the 
Church, or to punish them if they did not. Many of 
the Puritans had left the country, and founded the 
settlement of New England in America, that they 
might follow their own ideas of religion and govern- 
ment; but a much greater number remained in 
England. They were divided into many sects, the 
chief of which were the Presbyterians and the In- 
dependents. Each of these rose in turn to great 
power in the state. 

The Independents said that each congregation was 
a church by itself and ought to make rules for its own 
government. The Presbyterians thought that the 
Church should be governed by assemblies of min- 
isters and people chosen from every parish. A few 
years after James became King of England, he had 
grievously displeased the Scottish Presbyterians by 
appointing some bishops for Scotland. The Scots 
unwillingly consented to let them sit in the place 
of honor in the Church assemblies, but they would 
not allow them to exercise authority m the Church. 



Merrill's English history 169 



CHAPTER LI 

Reign of Charles I — Character of the King — His Disputes 
with Parliament : Petition of Right — Murder of Buck- 
ingham 

(From 1625 to 1629) 

Charles the First was twenty-four years old 
when he succeeded his father; he was a prince of 
noble countenance, but with a sad expression which 
seemed like a foreshowing of his melancholy for- 
tunes. Yet when he ascended the throne he saw 
only bright prospects before him. He sincerely de- 
sired to make his kingdom happy and prosperous, 
and he thought his subjects would place entire confi- 
dence in his good intentions. 

Charles did not see that the time was come when 
the King of England, if he wished to have a peace- 
able reign, must be contented with much less power 
than had been exercised by the Tudor sovereigns ; 
and unfortunately he had been taught that a king 
may lawfully dissemble with his subjects. Charles 
was a good man in other respects, and it seems 
strange he could ever think it right to say one thing 
and do another. When his subjects found out that 
he did not always mean what he said, they began to 
think he could not be trusted to keep any of his 
promises. 

He was apt also to take the advice given to him by 
others, even when it was contrary to his own better 
judgment. He would make up his mind to do some 
right and wise thing, and then allow his counsellors 
or his wife to persuade him out of it. His favorite, 
Buckingham, gave him very bad advice and encour- 



lyo MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

aged him in his mistaken notions of king-ly power. 
Charles had also a very unwise counsellor in his 
wife, Queen Henrietta Maria; he was excessively 
fond of her, and used to tell her his state secrets and 
follow her advice. And her advice was bad, for she 
did not know what was good for England or care for 
English law and freedom ; she only wanted her hus- 
band to be great and powerful. The people of Eng- 
land did not like the queen much ; and they hated 
Buckingham. 

The struggle between the king and his subjects 
began as soon as he called his first Parliament to- 
gether. England was in the midst of a war with 
Spain, and Charles thought the people who had been 
so pleased to begin the war would surely grant 
him money to carry it on. Instead of this, the 
House of Commons began by complaining of the 
bad conduct of the Duke of Buckingham, and by call- 
ing upon the king to put into force the severe laws 
against the Roman Catholics. By these laws, no 
Roman Catholic could hear mass so much as once, 
without being in danger of fine or imprisonment. 

Charles would hear nothing against Buckingham ; 
and as for his Roman Catholic subjects, he did not 
wish to trouble them w^hile they behaved like honest 
and peaceable men. So he dissolved his first Par- 
liament, and summoned another. The second was 
as uncomplying as the first, and was dissolved in like 
manner, at the end of a few weeks. 

Now the king had received no money for the ex- 
penses of the war and the government ; but there was 
a tax on all goods imported into England, called 
Tunnage and J^oundage, which had always been 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 171 

granted by Parliament to other kings. Charles or- 
dered that this tax should be collected just as if 
Parliament had granted it to him. He also ordered 
certain persons to lend him money, and bade the 
seaport towns provide ships. 

Other kings had done all these things and the 
people had submitted quietly; but now they mur- 
mured loudly. Few dared to refuse obedience, be- 
cause those who refused were put in prison, but 
every one said the king was acting unlawfully ; and 
so he was. He had no right to force his subjects to 
give him ships and money when Parliament had 
not agreed to it. But Charles thought he might 
lawfully do whatever other kings had done, when 
he w^as in the midst of a war and had no money to 
carry it on. This war added greatly to the discon- 
tent of the people ; the commanders behaved so ill 
that all the money and the lives of many men were 
expended for nothing. 

To make the evil greater, Buckingham had per- 
suaded the king to go to war with France as well as 
with Spain, and to give him the command of the 
forces. His generalship was as bad as his advice ; 
and after losing a great many men he was obliged 
to return to England without having obtained the 
smallest success. 

In March, 1628, Charles called a third Parliament, 
and the members of it came together with the firm 
resolve that they would put an end to the unlawful 
doings of the last three years. They prepared a law 
called the Petition of Right, which enacted that the 
king should never again raise taxes by his own au- 
thority nor put any man in prison except in the due 



172 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

course of law. Charles would not at first consent to 
the Petition of Right, but finally agreed that it should 
become law, and then many men thought all would 
go right and made great rejoicings. 

Their joy did not last long. The Parliament pro- 
ceeded to accuse Buckingham of being a traitor, and 
urged the king to dismiss him. Charles would do 
nothing of the kind. Buckingham, however, soon 
met his dismissal in a more terrible manner. A man 
named Felton, who had a quarrel of his own against 
the duke, stabbed him to the heart in the midst of 
his attendants ; and when he was tried for the mur- 
der he justified it as a good deed, saying that Par- 
liament had pronounced Buckingham to be a trai- 
tor. Charles grieved deeply for his favorite, and 
disliked his Parliament more than ever. 

As the House of Commons would not agree to 
grant him the tax called Tunnage and Poundage, he 
began to raise it by his own authority and imprisoned 
the merchants who refused to pay. Parliament com- 
plained that the king had already broken the Peti- 
tion of Right; and the quarrel ran so high that 
Charles sent some members of the House of Com- 
mons to prison and dissolved Parliament, threaten- 
ing that he would never summon another. 



CHAPTER LH 

Reign of Charles I — {contmued) 

Strafford and Laud — Courts of Star Chamber and High Com- 
mission — Ship-Money — Revolt in Scotland — The Covenant 
(From 1629 to 1640) 

For eleven years King Charles governed without 
a Parliament; he made laws and exacted taxes by 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 73 

his own authority. He made peace both with Spain 
and France ; and during most of the time the king- 
dom was in great prosperity. But the people were 
dissatisfied, because the king was not governing ac- 
cording to the laws of England. His chief coun- 
sellors at this time were Archbishop Laud and Sir 
Thomas Wentworth, afterward Earl of Strafford. 

Wentworth had been one of the leaders in the 
House of Commons against the king, but Charles 
won him over to his side, and from that time Went- 
worth bent all the powers of his great mind to make 
Charles the absolute master of his subjects. Went- 
worth 's former friends now hated him because he 
had deserted their cause, and one of them, Mr. Pym, 
plainly told him, "You may leave us, but I will 
never leave you till your head is off your shoulders." 

Archbishop Laud was the chief mark for the hatred 
of the Puritans ; he had done everything he could to 
put them down, and they in return never ceased to 
accuse him of being a Roman Catholic. He was a 
Protestant, but very fond of pomp and ceremonies 
in divine worship. Those who knew him well es- 
teemed him for many virtues ; but those who knew 
him but little disliked him on account of his harsh, 
positive temper. 

A great many books were written at this time 
against the king's government and against all the 
chief officers in church and state; and the writers 
were cruelly punished by the courts of Star Chamber 
and High Commission. Some of these books were 
very bad, full of slanders and only fit to stir up a re- 
bellion ; but when the authors were not only fined 
and imprisoned, but flogged, branded, set in the pil- 



174 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

lory, and had their ears cut off, men could not help 
pitying them, and were more inclined to believe 
what they said, however untrue it might be. Laud 
was reviled as the chief author of these cruel pun- 
ishments, though he had in truth no more to do with 
them than the other judges who presided in the Star 
Chamber and High Commission; but the courts 
themselves were contrary to the just laws of England 
and ought not to have existed at all. 

Another thing which added to the growing discon- 
tent was the exaction of a tax called ship-money. In 
former times, the people of the seaport towns had 
paid a tax in war-time to provide ships for the de- 
fence of the coast ; but Charles required them to pay 
ship-money in time of peace, and ordered that those 
who lived in the interior of the country should pay 
it, as well as those in the seaports. A gentleman of 
Buckinghamshire, named John Hampden, refused to 
pay, though he was only asked for twenty shillings, 
because it was an unlawful tax; but the king's 
judges decided that he ought to pay, and declared 
that the king had a right to require every one to pay 
ship-money whenever he thought proper. 

Hampden and those who thought as he did were 
obliged to give way, and it seemed that King Charles 
would soon be able to govern as he pleased. He had 
sent Strafford to govern Ireland, which was almost 
always in a state of rebellion, and Strafford had put 
down the rebels and reduced the country to quiet- 
ness. He hoped that he should enable the king to 
make England perfectly obedient before long ; and 
perhaps he might have done so, if Charles had not 
provoked a quarrel with his Scottish subjects. 



MERRILLS ENGLISH HISTORY 175 

We have seen that the Scots were utterly averse to 
a liturgy and were much displeased when King James 
appointed bishops for Scotland. King Charles had 
appointed more bishops, but the Scots would not al- 
low them to have any authority, and no liturgy was 
used in the churches; every minister prayed and 
preached as he thought proper. But in 1637 Charles 
ordered that a liturgy should be prepared for Scotland 
and used in all the parishes of the l^ingdom. This 
unwise order kindled a flame which spread from 
Scotland to England and involved the whole island 
in civil war. 

The liturgy was appointed to be used for the first 
time in Edinburgh, on the 23d of July, and the 
church was thronged with angry people. The mo' 
ment that the clergyman, clad in a white surplice, 
began to read the service, a frightful tumult arose on 
all sides, with reproaches, curses, and cries of rage. 
Still he attempted to read, until a strong woman 
who had provided herself with a three-legged stool 
flung it at his head. It missed its mark or he must 
have been killed on the spot; but the riot became 
general, and the clergy, dragged violently through 
the streets of the city, hardly escaped with their 
lives. 

The indignant Presbyterians did not stop here; 
urged on by some of their ministers, they drew up 
a bond which they called the Solemn League and 
Covenant. By this they bound themselves to resist 
even to the death all attempts to make any changes 
in their Church. Gentry, citizens, farmers, all 
signed the Covenant ; then they took up arms, seized 
on most of the strong places in the kingdom, and set 



176 Merrill's English history 

out for the borders of England, saying that they were 
in arms to maintain the true religion. 



CHAPTER LIII 

Reign of Charles I — (continued^ 

The Long Parliament — Death of Strafford, 1641 ; and of 

Laud, 1645 

(From 1640 to 1645) 

Charles hastened to Berwick to meet the Scottish 
army ; but he had no money for a war, and he was 
not inclined to fight against his own subjects and 
fellow-countrymen. So he came to an agreement 
with them that everything should be settled peace- 
ably by the Assembly of the Scottish Church and 
Parliament, and that the troops on both sides should 
laydowm their arms. Charles sent his army home at 
once, but the Scots did not perform their part of the 
agreement; they kept their forces together, and the 
following summer they overran the northern coun- 
ties of England. Charles was obliged now to sum- 
mon a Parliament, that they might grant him money 
to raise troops and drive back the Scots. 

Instead of granting him money, the Parliament 
complained of all the unlawful actions the king had 
committed during the last eleven years. At the end 
of three weeks Charles dissolved this Parliament; 
but he was no longer able to govern without one. 
Many of the English nobles and gentlemen had pro- 
vided him with money to march against the Scots, 
but they could not give him nearly enough to help 
him out of all his difficulties. So, in November, 
1640, King Charles once more, and for the last time, 
assembled a Parliament. 



178 Merrill's englism history 

Under the name of the Long Parliament it became 
the most memorable in English history, both for the 
good and the evil which it did. The members came 
together with the determination that they would not 
be dismissed until the king had been compelled to 
govern according to the laws. But most of the House 
of Commons hoped to accomplish much more than 
this ; they were bent on overturning the Church and 
taking away all power from the king, so that he 
should be merely king in name. 

One of the first steps taken by the Long Parlia- 
ment was to accuse Strafford and Laud of treason 
and cast them into prison. Neither of them had 
done anything which could be called treason by the 
laws of the land, but their enemies were determined 
to make a law by which to condemn them, rather than 
that they should escape death. Strafford was quickly 
brought to trial, and behaved himself so nobly while 
surrounded on all hands by men who thirsted for his 
blood, and made so eloquent and manly a defence of 
his conduct, that his very enemies could not help ad- 
miring him. But no defence could avail a man 
whom his judges were determined to condemn. He 
was sentenced to be beheaded, and the king was 
asked to give his consent to the sentence. 

• Charles was cruelly perplexed. He knew that 
every action for which Strafford was condemned had 
been done with a view of serving him, and it was a 
base return to give up his servant into the hands of 
his enemies. But the leaders of the Commons, and 
even the Puritan preachers in their sermons, stirred 
up the people of London to demand the execution of 
Strafford. Fierce mobs surrounded the palace, and 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 79 

the queen and her mother, in dreadful alarm, en- 
treated Charles to purchase peace and safety by the 
sacrifice of his friend. Strafford himself wrote a 
beautiful letter to his master, begging him not to 
spare his blood if the shedding of it would bring 
peace to the kingdom. Charles had one faithful 
counsellor near him. Bishop Juxon, who entreated 
his master not to listen to his fears but to his con- 
science; but the king did not follow this upright 
counsel. He betrayed his friend, and in so doing 
committed the worst action of his life, and one for 
which he never ceased to reproach himself till his 
own head fell beneath the axe of the executioner. 

In May, 1641, Strafford was beheaded on Tower 
Hill in the midst of a mob whose shouts and yells of 
triumph could not disturb the calm Christian courage 
with which he looked upon death. His fellow-cap- 
tive, Archbishop Laud, was detained in prison four 
years, and was treated with more cruel injustice than 
Strafford. Before the end of that time, King Charles 
had lost all power to save any one, and could only 
grieve deeply when he heard that Laud had met the 
same fate as Strafford. Laud suffered as became a 
Christian bishop, with piety and fortitude ; his last 
words were a fervent prayer for the Church and the 
people of England. 

CHAPTER LIV 

Reign of Charles I — {continued) 
The Irish Rebellion, 1641 — Beginning of the Civil War, 1642 — 
Battle of Edge Hill— Oliver Cromwell 
(From 1641 to 1645) 

In October, 1641, a dreadful insurrection broke out 
in Ireland. The native chieftains, with the Roman 



i8o Merrill's English history 

Catholic priests and bishops, had formed a scheme 
for clearing the island of the English and Protestant 
settlers, and recovering the lands which had been 
granted to them. But while Strafford governed they 
dared not resist his iron rule. Now he was dead and 
England in confusion, owing to the quarrel between 
the Parliament and the king ; and they thought it 
a good time to revolt. In a few weeks the north 
of Ireland was filled with bloodshed ; 154,000 men, 
women, and children were put to death, by every 
variety of torment which the cruelty of their mur- 
derers could invent. 

The king did what he could to quell the insurrec- 
tion, but he had hardly any power left, and some of 
his enemies in England declared that he did not wish 
to put down the rebels, and laid the guilt of their 
cruelties at his door. There was some little excuse 
for the men who uttered these slanders, for Charles 
in the course of his contests with Parliament did 
not always tell the exact truth; and at this time 
one of the rebel chiefs pretended he had obtained 
the king's consent to the revolt. But Charles was a 
very humane man ; and though he would have been 
glad to enlist any loyal Irishmen, whatever their 
creed might be, to serve him against the Parliament, 
he would have died rather than allow the slaughter 
of his innocent subjects, whether Catholics or Prot- 
estants. 

Parliament had already abolished the tyrannical 
courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission, 
and had punished all the judges and officers who had 
acted unjustly for the king; but they were beginning 
to act quite as unjustly against him. Step by step, 



Merrill's English history i8i 

they deprived him of all his lawful authority. 
Several of the best and wisest men in the House 
of Commons came over now to the king's side; two- 
thirds of the House of Lords were already with him. 

The Parliament had taken into their own hands 
Hull, Portsmouth, and the Tower of London, in 
which places were stored the arms and ammunition 
laid up for the defence of the kingdom. They now 
required that the king should give up to them the 
power of calling out the militia. Charles refused, 
for this would have made the Parliament absolute 
masters of England; but he saw plainly that he must 
either agree to all their demands and be nothing 
more than a puppet in their hands, or he must 
maintain his rights by force of arms. 

Both sides prepared for war, and on the 2 2d of 
August, 1642, the king set up his standard at Not- 
tingham. The first battle was fought on the 23d 
of October, at Edge Hill, in Warwickshire. Neither 
party gained the victory, but many men were slain 
on both sides. The king now moved to Oxford, 
which became his chief home as long as he was al- 
lowed to call any part of his kingdom his own. 
Large bodies of men were in arms for him in York- 
shire, Cornwall, and Wales, and almost every part of 
England became in turn the seat of war. 

Most of the noblemen and gentlemen and a great 
number of the country people were for the king ; the 
citizens of the large towns were, for the most part, 
against him, and so were those country gentlemen 
and farmers who had embraced the Puritan princi- 
ples. The Parliament had also the assistance of the 
Scots. At first the king had much success, for the 



i82 Merrill's English history 

loyal gentry and farmers who fought for him made 
better soldiers than the troops of the Parliament. 

But Charles, though surrounded by brave men, 
had no very good general. His nephew, Prince Ru- 
pert, distinguished himself by his dashing valor; 
but he was so rash in battle and so impatient of con- 
trol that on the whole he did more mischief than 
good. Charles himself showed greater ability both 
for war and government than any of his servants, but 
he was apt to follow their advice rather than his own 
wiser counsels. The Parliament, on the other hand, 
had one of the best generals that ever lived — Oliver 
Cromwell, a man of universal genius. He had been 
known only as a Puritan country gentleman till he 
made his appearance in the Parliament of 1640 — a 
rough-looking, unpolished man, who spoke with 
warmth, but in so confused a manner that it was 
hard to make out what he meant. Now he threw 
himself eagerly into the struggle against the king, 
raised a troop of horse, which he commanded him- 
self, and soon became famous for his military skill. 

During some years, Lord Essex first, and then 
General Fairfax, were called commanders of the par- 
liamentary army, but Cromwell was the leader to 
whom the troops really looked up. By his excellent 
discipline he made them some of the best soldiers in 
the world. His own regiment was called Ironsides ; 
they were Independents, filled with the fiercest en- 
thusiasm for their own notions of religion and gov- 
ernment, and ready to destroy both king and Parlia- 
ment that they might make England a republic. 

The Parliament and their army took to themselves 
the name of "The Saints" and "The Godly," and 



Merrill's English history 183 

called all who loved the kinsf or fousfht for him 



tj ^^ -^^"ts' 



" Malignants. " But among these so-called " Malig- 
nants" were some of the noblest men that ever trod 
on English ground. The king's men were also 
nick-named "Cavaliers," and the Parliament men 
"Roundheads," because they wore their hair cut 
short and close; the Cavaliers, on the contrary, 
wore long, flowing locks. 

The entire dress of the two parties was as different 
as the cut of their hair. That of the Cavaliers was 
more elegant and showy than had been seen before 
in England. The men wore tall hats, with a feather 
on one side and a bunch of ribbons on the other. A 
broad collar, edged with lace, was turned down over 
the shoulders; the tight vest or jacket was buttoned 
at top, but unbuttoned below, where the ruffled shirt 
was displayed. The breeches reached to the knee, 
ending in points and gay ribbons, and hose tied 
above the calf covered the legs. The tops of the 
boots were large, fringed with lace, and the toes of 
the boots much longer than the foot. The dress of 
the fine lady was no less elaborate, and her face was 
adorned with black patches, in the form of circles, 
stars, half-moons, and sometimes horses, coaches, 
and the like. The Roundheads, on the other hand, 
were extremely plain in their dress, and the ladies 
wore no ornaments whatever. The garments of 
both sexes were made of the coarsest materials and 
in the simplest fashion. 



184 Merrill's English history 

CHAPTER LV 

Reign of Charles I — icontintied) 

Tyrannical Government of the Parliament and the Puritans — 
Battle of Naseby, 1645 — Charles takes Refuge with the 
Scots; and is given up by them to the Parliament, 1647 
(From 1643 to 1649) 

For about five or six years the Parliament ruled 
without control. They said they were fighting for 
the laws and liberties of England, and all the while 
they were committing acts of greater oppression and 
injustice than had ever been laid to the charge of the 
king or his ministers. They forced the people to pay 
heavier taxes than had been known in England be- 
fore ; they obliged them to provide horses and arms 
for the war, and even ordered that men should be 
pressed into their service for soldiers. When some 
citizens of London objected to their proceedings, they 
hanged them at their own doors ; and if any one 
wished to take no part either for or against them, 
they ordered that he should be treated as an enemy. 

They had encouraged fierce mobs to petition 
against the Church, the king, and his ministers; but 
now that the people wanted to complain of their own 
unjust doings, they passed a severe law against what 
they called " tumultuous petitioning. " The friends 
of the king sold their valuable things to help him, 
and gave him their gold and silver plate to coin into 
money ; the Parliament punished these loyal men by 
confiscating their estates. Those who raised troops 
for him were ordered to be put to death without 
mercy. 

The clergy were treated with the most barbarous 



Merrill's English history 185 

injustice. In the year 1643, a bond was drawn up, 
called " A solemn league and covenant, for the re- 
formation and defence of religion, the honor and 
happiness of the king, and the peace and safety of 
the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land. " This covenant bound men by a solemn oath 
to promote to the utmost of their power the designs of 
the Parliament; and, in particular, to overturn the 
English Church, in order that a form of doctrine, 
worship, and discipline, similar to those of Scotland, 
might be established in the three kingdoms. The 
clergy were commanded to take the covenant on pain 
of losing their benefices ; and seven thousand clergy- 
men were turned out of their homes and livings and 
deprived of everything they possessed, even to their 
household furniture, because they would not bind 
themselves to renounce the doctrine, government, 
and worship of the English Church. Some of the 
clergy were so ill-used that they died in consequence ; 
hundreds perished in jails, and others were shut up 
in the holds of ships. 

The Puritans meddled even with the private wor- 
ship of families, and forbade any one to use the 
Prayer-Book in his own house, under pain of fine and 
imprisonment. The churches were miserably pro- 
faned by the soldiers of the Parliament; they broke 
down the carved work, destro3^ed the painted win-_ 
dows, and tore up the monuments of the dead, that 
they might sell the materials. The troopers stabled 
their horses in the cathedrals, and sat there smoking 
and drinking, as if the house of God had been a 
tavern. 

All this while, many battles and sieges were tak- 



1 86 Merrill's English history 

ing place, and thousands of Englishmen had fallen. 
In 1643, two of the most famous men in the kingdom 
were killed — John Hampden, fighting against the 
king, at Chalgrove, near Oxford ; and Lord Falk- 
land, fighting for the king, at Newbury. The war 
was not confined to England. A brave young man, 
the Marquis of Montrose, had taken arms in Scot- 
land, and was fighting for the king against the Scot- 
tish Covenanters. But the forces of Charles grew 
weaker and weaker, and at Naseby, in Northampton- 
shire, on the 14th of June, 1645, they were defeated 
with terrible slaughter by the parliamentary army 
under Fairfax. This defeat was the ruin of the 
king's cause. Fairfax proceeded to subdue all the 
west of England, and, in the spring of 1646, ap- 
proached Oxford. 

Charles had the greatest horror of falling alive 
into the hands of the Parliament, He determined 
rather to trust himself with the Scots, who had en- 
tered England and were encamped near Newark. 
When he heard that Fairfax was drawing near, he 
fled from Oxford and repaired to the Scottish camp. 
He was received with some show of respect, but 
found himself in fact a prisoner. The Scots required 
him to give orders that Montrose should lay down 
his arms, and that all the towns and castles which 
his friends still held for him should be surrendered 
to the troops of the Parliament. Charles complied; 
Oxford, Worcester, Pendennis, and Raglan were 
given up, and Montrose retired to Norway. The 
king had no place left in all his kingdom which he 
could call his own. Even his poor shelter in the 
-Scottish camp was soon taken from him. 



Merrill's English history 187 

Although much insulted and annoyed by some of 
the Scots, he won greatly upon the affections of others, 
and the Parliament began to fear that they would 
help him to regain his kingdom. They would fain 
have driven back their allies into their own country ; 
but they found an easier way of getting rid of them, 
and at the same time of obtaining possession of the 
captive king. They promised the Scottish leaders a 
large sum of money if they would give up the king 
and go back to Scotland ; and, to their lasting dis- 
grace, the Scots betrayed their sovereign who had 
fled to them in the hour of his distress, and, on the 
30th of January, 1647, gave him up into the hands of 
his enemies. 

During two years Charles remained a prisoner, 
sometimes in the hands of the Parliament, sometimes 
in those of the army. The Parliament had begun 
to find out that, in attempting to destroy the author- 
ity of their king, they had raised up to themselves 
many masters; for their own army would no longer 
obey them. They would have been glad now to 
come to some agreement with Charles, but it was too 
late. Unknown to Fairfax, who was commander-in- 
chief, Cromwell had ordered a troop of horse to take 
the king out of the hands of the persons whom the 
Parliament had set to guard him, and to bring him 
to the headquarters of the army in Cambridgeshire. 
He now took the command of the army himself, and 
by his orders Charles was taken from place to place, 
and at last to Hampton Court palace. He remained 
there some months, and was able to arrange a plan 
of escape for his second son, James, a boy of four- 
teen. Disguised in girl's clothes, James got safely 



i88 Merrill's English history. 

away and joined his elder brother and sister in Hol- 
land. The queen and her youngest child, Henrietta, 
were in France; and only two of the king's children, 
Elizabeth and Henry, remained in England. 

When Charles had been for some time at Hampton 
Court, the soldiers, stirred up by their preacher, 
Hugh Peters, began to demand his blood. The 
king, afraid they would murder him, contrived to 
get away from Hampton Court and fly to the south 
coast, hoping to find there some ship which would 
take him abroad. But there was none, and he was 
forced to give himself up to Colonel Hammond, who 
governed the Isle of Wight for the Parliament, and 
who was ordered by his masters to confine Charles a 
close prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle. There Charles 
spent ten dreary months, but he was always patient 
and cheerful, and gentle to everybody about him. 
He had always won the love of those who lived with 
him, but never so much as in these days of captivity 
and sorrow, when all that was faulty in his character 
seemed to have been purged away by the fire of af- 
fliction. 

At the end of ten months the Parliament again 
tried to make a treaty with the king, but there was 
one thing to which he could not consent — that those 
brave men who had fought for him should be counted 
traitors. When he heard that some of them had been 
shot in cold blood by order of Cromwell, he could 
not refrain from tears. Even if Charles had agreed 
to the demand of the Parliament, the army did not 
intend that the treaty should take effect, for they 
were resolved that he should die. There were some 
members of the Parliament who could not make up 



Merrill's English history 189 

their minds to the murder of the king; but Cromwell 
soon got rid of them by sending Colonel Pride with 
500 soldiers to turn them out of the House. 

There remained now but fifty members of the 
House of Commons, and this miserable remnant of a 
Parliament was called in derision " The Rump. " 
Almost all the members of the House of Lords had 
long since ceased to attend ; most of them had armed 
for the king, and several had fallen in his service. 



CHAPTER LVI 
Reign of Charles I — icontimied) 

Trial and Execution of King Charles 
(1649) 

There was no law in England by which it could 
be even pretended that the king had deserved death. 
But the Rump dared not disobey the will of their 
masters ; so they first made a new law — that it was 
treason for a king to go to war with his subjects — 
and then they set up a new kind of tribunal, which 
they called the High Court of Justice, to try Charles 
for this pretended crime. The people of England 
looked on in fear and sorrow. They were powerless 
beneath the yoke of the army ; but even the lowest 
of the populace had come to their senses at last, and 
when they saw their king led up, day by day, like a 
criminal to Westminster Hall, they greeted him with 
tears and blessings. 

Before his judges Charles behaved with the utmost 
dignity, meekness, and courage. He told them that 
he would not even make answer to their false ac- 
cusations, lest he should seem to acknowledge that 



IpO MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

they had a right to try him ; he would rather die in 
defence of the laws and rights of Englishmen which 
they were now trampling under foot. He told them 
that, even if it were not contrary to English law to 
try the king, they could have no right to try any one; 
for they had set themselves up as a court of justice 
without the consent of the people, or of the House of 
Lords, or even of their own House of Commons, hav- 
ing turned most of their companions out of doors 
because they would not consent to these unlawful 
proceedings. Even of the judges who were ap- 
pointed, one-half refused to appear in the court. 
But Cromwell, his son-in-law, Ireton, and Bradshaw 
were among the foremost there. 

The soldiers who guarded the king to and from the 
hall were encouraged by their officers to insult him. 
One poor fellow who dared to say, " God bless you, 
sir," was instantly knocked down, while those who 
spat in the king's face were commended. But no 
insult could disturb the patient fortitude of Charles. 
He listened calmly to the sentence of death pro- 
nounced upon him ; only when his murderers called 
him a traitor, he cried "Ha!" in a voice which 
echoed through the hall. 

The two days of life which yet remained to him he 
spent in devotion, and in a last interview with his 
children, Elizabeth and Henry. The Princess Eliza- 
beth was thirteen years old, and wrote an account of 
this sad meeting. Her father gave her his last coun- 
sels, directed her what books to study, and, seeing 
her agony of grief, bade her not sorrow overmuch 
for his death, since he died in a good cause, defend- 
ing the rights and laws and religion of England. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 191 

Taking the little Henry, who was eight years old, on 
his knee, he said to him: "Mark, my child, what I 
say. Thou must not be made a king while thy 
brothers are alive. Now will they cut off thy father's 
head, and they will cut off thy brothers' heads when 
they can catch them, and cut off thy head too at last ; 
therefore, I charge thee, do not be made a king by 
them." "I will be torn in pieces first," said the 
little boy. Well pleased with his earnestness, the 
king embraced him and his sister, commended them 
fervently to God, and gave them his last blessing. 
He watched them sadly as they retired, and, when 
they reached the door, ran to them and folded them 
once more in his arms; then, turning away as one 
who had done with earthly cares, he betook himself 
to prayer. 

Early on the morning of the 30th of January, 1649, 
Charles rose with a cheerful countenance, and 
dressed himself with unusual care as for a festival. 
"To-day," said he, "I hope to go from earth to 
heaven." His faithful chaplain, Bishop Juxon, came 
to him and read the 27th chapter of St. Matthew, 
which was in the church ritual for the day, and then 
the king walked to the scaffold, which was erected at 
Whitehall. Thousands of people filled all the space 
around and crowded every roof within sight. The 
king looked round him and began to speak, but the 
soldiers who guarded the scaffold made so much 
noise that none could hear but those who stood near. 
He declared himself innocent of the crimes laid to 
his charge, but added that he looked on himself as 
guilty in the sight of God of the murder of Strafford, 
and that he took his own beheading as a righteous 



192 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

retribution for that great sin. He forgave his 
enemies, and prayed that his death might not be 
laid to their charge. Then he took off the jewel of 
the Garter and gave it to Bishop Juxon, with the 
word " Remember. " Kneeling down by the block, 
he spent a few moments in prayer, then gave the 
signal by stretching out his arms, and at one blow 
his head was struck off. The executioner, whose 
face was hidden by a mask, held it up in sight of the 
people, saying, "This is the head of a traitor." But 
from all that vast multitude there rose one deep 
groan of sorrow. 

Charles the First was forty-eight years old at the 
time of his death. He left six children: Charles, 
who now took the title of king; James, Duke of 
York; Mary, who had been married at the beginning 
of her father's troubles to the Prince of Orange; 
Henrietta, Elizabeth, and Henry. After their fa- 
ther's death, it was ordered that Elizabeth and 
Henry should no more be called prince and princess, 
but plain Elizabeth and Henry Stuart; and it w^as 
proposed to apprentice them to a trade, or to marry 
Elizabeth to the son of one of her father's murderers. 

A happier fate was in store for the gentle, affec- 
tionate girl, who had never recovered from the grief 
of her father's loss. Shut up in Carisbrooke Castle, 
with no earthly friend near her but her little brother, 
she slowly pined away, and in her fifteenth year was 
one day found dead, with her face resting on her 
open Bible. Henry was permitted when thirteen 
years old to join his mother in France, but she 
treated him very unkindly because he would not 
become a Roman Catholic. 



Merrill's English history 193 



CHAPTER LVII 

The Commonwealth — Cromwell Subdues Ireland — Charles II 
Proclaimed King in Scotland, 1649 — The Scots Over- 
thrown at Dunbar, 1650; and at Worcester, 1651 — Narrow 
Escape of Charles — Complete Subjection of Scotland — 
Cromwell Enthroned as Protector of the Commonwealth, 

1653 

(From 1649 to 1654) 

After the death of Charles the First, England 
was no longer called a kingdom, but a common- 
wealth, and a " Council of State" of thirty-seven per- 
sons was appointed to govern it. But the power was 
almost entirely in the hands of Cromwell, and some 
of the people called him "King Cromwell." His 
first care was to reduce Ireland and Scotland to sub- 
mission. Ireland had never been very loyal to the 
king, and was still less disposed to obey the men who 
had usurped his power; but the vigorous cruelty of 
Cromwell soon subdued all resistance. He began 
with Drogheda, took it by assault, and no sooner 
found himself master of the town than he gave orders 
for putting the whole garrison to the sword. This 
hideous execution was continued for five days ; thirty 
persons only remained unslaughtered, and these were 
instantly transported as slaves to Barbadoes. Wexford 
met a like fate, and most of the other towns were so 
intimidated that they surrendered at once. 

In the mean time the Scottish Covenanters had re- 
fused to acknowledge the authority of the Council of 
State, and had taken up arms in the name of King 
Charles the Second. They invited him over from 
France, but he no sooner set his foot in Scotland than 
he found himself a prisoner. The Covenanters had 
13 



194 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

already put his best friend, the brave Marquis o£ 
Montrose, to death, because he fought for the young 
king and would have nothing to do with the Cov- 
enant. They obliged Charles to sign it, denied him 
every amusement, and made him listen to long ser- 
mons upon his own sins and the sins of his father 
and his mother. The king was only nineteen, and 
but too fond of pleasure. This kind of life was so 
wearisome to him that he heartily rejoiced when he 
heard that Cromwell and his formidable army had 
arrived in Scotland. But the Covenanters would not 
allow Charles to go with them to battle. They en- 
countered Cromwell at Dunbar on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1650, and were utterly routed. 

The next year, Charles persuaded the Scottish com- 
mander to march boldly into England, where he 
thought the country people and the gentry would 
flock to his standard. His coming was so unex- 
pected that very few men joined him. Cromwell 
had hastened after him from Scotland, and came up 
with him at Worcester. There, on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1 65 1, the Scottish troops were again utterly 
routed with very great slaughter. Several thousand 
prisoners were taken ; Cromwell sent them all into 
slavery, some to work in the African gold-mines, the 
rest in the West Indian plantations. Charles es- 
caped. The Parliament offered a large reward to 
any one who would apprehend " the son of the last 
man" (that was what they called him) ; but no one 
was tempted by it, though forty-one days passed 
before he could reach the coast and take ship for 
France, and he had so many dangers and escapes 
that the story of them would fill a book. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 95 

The first persons who sheltered him were five 
brothers, wood-cutters, named Penderell, Avho lived 
at a wild, secluded spot called Boscobel, on the bor- 
ders of Shropshire. But their house was so beset 
that they were obliged to hide him one whole day in 
an oak tree, where he sat among the thick branches, 
and heard the soldiers going to and fro underneath 
looking for him. Another time he was disguised as 
the servant of a lady, who contrived to get him safely 
through a three-days' journey to Bristol ; but he was 
very near being discovered at one house where they 
stopped, by his awkwardness in helping the cook, 
who bade him assist her to get the dinner ready. 

For the next nine years, Charles led a wandering 
life in France, Holland, or the Netherlands; shel- 
tered by the governments of those countries when 
they were not afraid of Cromwell, and at other times 
obliged to go and seek refuge elsewhere. Mr. Hyde, 
afterward made Lord Clarendon, and a few other 
faithful triends, accompanied him m all his wander- 
ings ; but the little court was beset with spies, who 
betrayed all their correspondence with their English 
friends, so that every attempt which the royalists 
made in England on behalf of Charles only ended 
in their own destruction. 

After the victory of Worcester, Cromwell had re- 
turned m triumph to London^ and taken up his abode 
with kingly state at Hampton Court palace. He 
had left an able general, named Monk, in Scotland, 
who reduced the people to complete subjection. 
Strong forts were built to keep them in awe, English 
judges were sent to administer the laws, and even 
the preachers, the most untamable set of men in 



196 Merrill's English history 

the kingdom, were forced to obey Cromwell and his 
general. 

The conquest of Ireland had been completed by 
Ireton, Most of the natives were dispossessed of 
their lands and their places filled with English set- 
tlers, the best lands being shared among Cromwell's 
soldiers. The Irish were forced to leave the coun- 
try, or to go and live in the wild province of Con- 
naught. The new settlers soon rebuilt the towns, 
cultivated the fields, and changed the face of the 
country. Cromwell's youngest son, Henry, was 
placed over them as governor. He was a good 
man, who tried to do justice to every one and was 
much beloved. 

In England, Cromwell was mounting with rapid 
steps to the highest place. The Rump tried to shake 
off the yoke of the army, and to act as if they were 
the masters of the commonwealth. Cromwell im- 
mediately went down to the House of Commons, at- 
tended by three hundred soldiers. He left them at 
the door, and bade them wait till he gave them the 
signal to enter by stamping with his foot. Then he 
went in and sat down as usual. x\fter listening to 
the debate for a few minutes, he jumped up, saying, 
" This is the time — I must do it. " He poured out a 
torrent of reproaches on the astonished members, 
called them drunkards, extortioners, and other bad 
names; then, stamping with his foot, he continued: 
"For shame! get you gone, and make way for 
honester men. You are no longer a Parliament. I 
tell you, you are no longer a Parliament. The Lord 
has done with you." By this time the House was 
full of armed men. Pointing to the mace, " Take 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 97 

away that bauble," said Cromwell to one of the sol- 
diers; and, driving the cowed members before him 
like a flock of sheep, he locked the door behind 
them, put the key in his pocket, and returned to the 
royal apartments at Whitehall. 

He now summoned a Parliament after a fashion of 
his own. Scotland was to send five members, Ire- 
land six, and England and Wales one hundred and 
twenty-eight. Englishmen in derision called this 
" Barebone's Parliament, " from the name of a leather- 
seller, called Praise-God Barbon, or Barebone, who 
was one of the members. It talked of doing great 
things — abolishing the universities, the courts of 
law, etc., but it was not willing to be what Crom- 
well intended — a mere tool in his hands. So the 
soldiers were again called in, and Barebone's Parlia- 
ment shared the fate of the Rump. 

Cromwell was now declared " Protector of the 
Commonwealth," and afterward "Lord Protector." 
He was solemnly enthroned in Westminster Hall, 
presented with the Bible, with the sword of state, 
with everything but the crown — for his army would 
not bear the na7ne of king. But he had more powxr 
than any English king had possessed, and an army 
of thirty thousand men to keep down all resistance ; 
and for the next five or six years Cromwell reigned 
over Great Britain and Ireland, feared abroad and 
obeyed, though by no means beloved, at home. 



198 Merrill's English history 

CHAPTER LVIII 

The Commonwealth — {conti?iued') 

Despotic Government of Cromwell — Gloom of the Puritans — 
Glorious Exploits and Death of Blake — Death of Crom- 
well, 1658 — Richard Cromwell Proclaimed Protector: he 
Resigns his Office, 1659 

(From 1654 to 1659) 

The Puritan republicans who had brought Eng- 
land to civil war, rather than have a king to reign 
over them, were bitterly disappointed when they 
found they had only been fighting and warring to 
make one of their own companions a more abso- 
lute monarch than Charles the First had ever been. 
They made many plots against him, but Cromwell 
always found them out. He divided England into 
fourteen districts, and set over each an ofhcer, whom 
he called a major-general. He gave these officers 
great power, particularly in oppressing the royalists, 
who had been already ground down by repeated ex- 
actions, and were now required to give up the tenth 
part of their remaining property. The clergy, who 
had been persecuted and turned out of their livings, 
were to be brought to more utter ruin and beggary, 
if possible. They were forbidden to act as school- 
masters, the only means of support which remained 
to most of them ; and all persons were forbidden to 
receive them into their houses as tutors or chaplains. 

All these oppressions were committed in the name 
of religion, and by men who seldom spoke without 
using the language of Scripture. The Puritans for- 
bade all the amusements of the people — broke down 
the maypoles and set the fiddlers in the stocks ; the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 1 99 

festivals of Christmas and Easter were no longer to 
be observed, and all the old holidays were done 
away with. The apprentices of London made such 
a clamor at this, that the second Tuesday in each 
month was given them for a holiday. In general 
the people submitted very impatiently, and grew no 
better for all the restraints imposed on them. 

Indeed, many of those persons who wished to re- 
store the king tried to be as riotous and profane as 
they could, just to show that they despised the Puri- 
tans. Seven years of war and bloodshed had greatly 
injured the character of the nation ; and good men 
who lived in those days have left a sad picture of 
the change which had come over England. Piety, 
charity, and plain dealing had given place to con- 
tempt for sacred things, covetousness, strife, and 
perjury. 

With all Cromwell's faults, he had the honor of his 
country at heart and did much to fulfil his words, 
that "he would make the name of an Englishman to 
be as much feared as that of a Roman had ever 
been." Under his protectorate, all the states of 
Europe courted the alliance of England, and the 
British flag rode triumphant in every sea. Under 
Admiral Blake and Monk, who was as good a com- 
mander at sea as on land, English fleets vanquished 
the Dutch and the Spaniards, and forced the Italians 
and the pirates of Barbary to make amends for the 
wrongs of which they had been guilty toward the 
British merchant-ships. 

Blake did not become a sailor till he was fifty years 
of age, yet he is one of England's most famous ad- 
mirals. His last and greatest exploit was the seiz- 



20O MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

ing the Spanish treasure-fleet in the harbor of Santa 
Cruz, in the isle of Teneriffe. The harbor was so 
strongly fortified with a castle at the entrance and 
forts all round, and there were so many ships of war 
ready to repel all intruders, that the Spaniards 
thought themselves perfectly safe. But a Dutchman, 
whose ship was lying there, went to the governor the 
moment he heard Blake's fleet was near, and be- 
sought leave to quit the harbor at once ; " for I am 
sure, " said he, " Blake will be among you very soon. " 
The governor laughed at his fears : " Go, if you will, 
and let Blake come if he dare. " It would have been 
hard to find the thing which Blake dared not do. He 
sailed boldly into Santa Cruz Bay, faced the fire of 
the castle, silenced all the smaller forts, and, having 
seized the treasure-ships, he returned by the way he 
came, without losing a single vessel. The damage 
done to the Spaniards on sea and on shore was im- 
mense, but they comforted themselves with the no- 
tion that the English must have been devils and not 
men, to attack them in such a situation. 

At home, every one longed to heap honors on 
Blake, but he was very ill and longed only for one 
thing — to see England again before he died. Very 
often, when he could no longer go on deck, he used 
to ask if the white cliffs were in sight yet. But he 
saw them no more. Just as the victorious squadron 
entered Plymouth harbor, and the flag-ship of the 
dying admiral " came within sight of the eager thou- 
sands who crowded the beach, the pier-heads, the 
walls of the citadel, ready to catch the first glimpse 
of the hero of Santa Cruz and salute him with a true 
English welcome — he, in his silent cabin, in the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 20I 

midst of his lion-hearted comrades, now sobbing- like 
little children, yielded np his soul to God." 

Jamaica had already been conq["iiered from the 
Spaniards, and in 1658 Dunkirk was taken, much to 
the gratification of the people, for Englishmen had 
not yet left off regretting the loss of Calais, their one 
town on the continent of Europe. Dunkirk was the 
last acquisition of Cromwell ; on the 3d of Septem- 
ber, 1658, he died. His last years had been harassed 
with fears lest some of the persons who were discon- 
tented with his government should murder him. He 
wore armor under his ordinary dress, never stirred 
abroad unless surrounded by guards, never returned 
by the same road, nor slept in the same apartment 
more than two or three nights at a time. But he 
died quietly in his bed, and was interred with more 
than royal pomp in Westminster Abbey among the 
tombs of the kings. 

He left his dignity of lord protector to his son 
Richard, who was an honest country gentleman, not 
at all fit for such a station or inclined to it. The 
army soon gave him to understand that they would 
not submit to a second lord protector, and Richard 
quietly gave up his post. His brother Henry also 
gave up the command of Ireland. 



CHAPTER LIX 

Charles II — The Army Attempt to Govern — Charles II Re- 
called, 1660 — Joy of the Nation — Character of King 
Charles II 

(From 1659 to 1660) 

England seemed now to have no ruler. The re- 
publicans hoped they should be able to set up their 



202 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

favorite government, and the royalists longed to call 
back Charles the Second and place him on his fa- 
ther's throne; but no one ventured to propose this 
from fear of the army, who were now the most 
powerful body in the state. They elected a certain 
number of officers from each regiment as a " Com- 
mittee of Safety," which was to govern the com- 
monwealth. The people hated the thought of these 
military tyrants ; but there was a deliverer at hand 
whom they had not dreamed of. 

Monk, the commander of Scotland, was a very 
silent, prudent man, but at heart a royalist ; and he 
was resolved to restore if possible the old govern- 
ment by kings, lords, and commons. He set out 
from Scotland with his little army of 7,000 veterans; 
and no sooner was it known that Monk had entered 
England and was marching toward London than the 
whole nation rose up against the " Committee of 
Safety. " Even the soldiers deserted their leaders to 
go over to Monk's side. All this while Monk had 
only said he would have a free Parliament. But 
every one knew that a free Parliament would call 
back the king, and all England was filled with joy- 
ful expectation. 

Once more the members of the House of Com- 
mons, who had been expelled by Colonel Pride and 
by Cromwell, came back to their places, but only to 
issue writs for a new Parliament and to declare 
themselves dissolved. This was the end of the Long 
Parliament, in March, 1660, more than nineteen 
years after its first assembling. 

The new Parliament quickly assembled; and, for 
the first time for many years, the House of Lords 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 203 

met as well as the House of Commons. Monk pro- 
posed the recall of the king. Not one voice was raised 
against it, and on the 8th of Ma}^ Charles the Second 
was proclaimed at London, amid such rejoicings 
as had not been seen since the accession of Queen 
Elizabeth. The fleet set out for Holland to take 
the king on board, and on the 27th of May he landed 
at Dover, in sight of an innumerable multitude of 
spectators, who covered the cliffs and wept for very 
gladness. His journey to London, which he entered 
two days afterward, on his thirtieth birthday, was a 
continued triumph. The whole road from Rochester 
was bordered by booths and tents. " Everywhere 
flags were flying, bells and music sounding, wine 
and ale flowing in rivers to the health of him whose 
return was the return of peace, of law, and of free- 
dom." " It must have been my own fault that I did 
not come back before," said Charles, laughing, "for 
every one says he is glad to see me." 

Among those who attended the king and shared 
his triumph was his brother Henry Duke of Glouces- 
ter, now nineteen years old. Henry had grown 
up with a high reputation as a youth of gallant spirit 
and blameless conduct, and he died before the breath 
of reproach could sully it. In the midst of the re- 
joicings at his brother's coronation, he was seized 
with a fatal attack of small-pox. Soon afterward his 
eldest sister, Mary Princess of Orange, was carried 
off by the same complaint. She left one young son, 
named William, who afterward became very famous. 

Charles the Second was a graceful, well-bred man, 
his conversation very witty and sensible, his manners 
so lively and engaging that they pleased every one. 



204 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

The nation was wild with joy at the restoration of 
its ancient government. One way in which this 
feeling showed itself was by taking the body of Crom- 
well out of his grave and hanging it on a gibbet at 
Tyburn, after which it was throvv^n into a hole be- 
neath the gallows. This unworthy deed of revenge 
was committed by order of the Parliament ; but it 
was even more disgraceful that Charles should com- 
mand the body of the heroic Blake to be disen- 
tombed from its honored resting-place in West- 
minster Abbey, that it might be interred among the 
undistinguished dead in the neighboring church- 
yard. 

It was too soon seen that Charles the Second could 
not admire any man merely for having served his 
country well ; for he cared not at all for the honor of 
England or anything but his own ease and pleasure. 
If he might but lead an idle, merry life, he was 
satisfied. He would give no attention to the busi- 
ness of the state, but surrounded himself with dis- 
solute companions, elegant men and beautiful women, 
who were some of the most profligate characters that 
ever disgraced a court. He had married Catherine 
of Portugal, a sensible and amiable princess ; but he 
utterly neglected her, and squandered the large 
marriage-portion she had brought him on the com- 
panions of his vicious pleasures. 

Charles was not unmerciful ; he took no stern ven- 
geance on the men who had murdered his father and 
had forced himself to spend so many years in exile 
and penury. Eleven only of those who had sat in 
judgment on Charles the First or assisted in his 
death were executed, all of them glorying in their 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 205 

deed to the last. But the king showed little grati- 
tude to the men who had suffered for his father and 
himself. Many a brave man who had spent all his 
goods and shed his blood in the service of Charles 
the First was left destitute of a home or a meal, 
while the king lavished money and rewards on the 
courtiers who amused him. The evil example of 
the court spread downward, and affected all classes 
of the people; they were weary of the restraints 
which their Puritan governors had imposed even on 
their innocent pleasures, and now they ran into the 
opposite extreme of riot and intemperance. 



CHAPTER LX 

Reign of Charles II — {contiiiued) 

The English Church Restored — The Nonconformists — War 
with Holland — The Great Plague, 1665 — The Fire of 
London, 1666 

(From 1660 to 1667) 

Notwithstanding the careless indolence of the 
king, it seemed at first that England would enjoy good 
government under his reign. Clarendon and other 
upright men who had followed him in his exile were 
promoted to chief offices in the state. The great 
and good Sir Matthew Hale, who had been too honest 
a judge to please Cromwell, was now made one of 
the principal judges and afterward chief justice. 

The bishops and clerg}^ who had been deprived of 
their offices were restored to them, and it was hoped 
at first that some plan might be formed by which 
Churchmen and Presbyterians could agree to form 
one church. But the Presbyterians wanted too many 
changes, and the Churchmen were not very willing 



2o6 Merrill's English history 

to make any; and in the second year after the king's 
return, an act of Parliament was passed which re- 
quired that every clergyman who had a parish should 
be ordained by a bishop and use the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. 

Many of the parishes were held by the Puritan 
ministers who had taken possession of them in the 
times of the civil war and the commonwealth, and 
about two thousand of these refused to conform to 
the act. They were obliged, therefore, to give place 
to Churchmen. This was done at the Feast of St. 
Bartholomew, 1662, exactly the date at which, six- 
teen years before, the loyal clergy had been turned 
out of their livings. 

The Puritan ministers were now called Noncon- 
formists. They were much more gently dealt with 
than the clergy had been, but they were forbidden 
to preach to congregations, and the people were for- 
bidden to hear them ; for no set of men in England, 
whether Churchmen or Puritans, had yet learned to 
allow other men to worship God according to their 
own consciences. Some very wise and good Noncon- 
formists were much harassed on this account. 

In the third year of the king's reign he sold Dun- 
kirk to the French, much to the displeasure of his 
own subjects. It was said in excuse that it was too 
expensive a possession; but the people saw too 
plainly that Charles wasted every year a great deal 
more money than would have been necessary to keep 
up the garrison and fortifications of Dunkirk. Soon 
afterward the Dutch and English merchants who 
traded to the colonies quarrelled so much that Eng- 
land went to war with Holland. Some victories 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 207 

were gained by Monk, Prince Rupert, and the Duke 
of York, but the war seemed to be to little purpose, 
except to waste the lives of brave men on both sides ; 
and the English grew the more weary of it because 
of the calamities which had befallen them at home 
in the years 1665 and 1666. 

In 1665 broke out the Great Plague of London. 
The city had been many times visited by the plague, 
for the old wooden houses and the narrow, winding 
streets harbored infection; but so terrible a pesti- 
lence as this had not been known since the Black 
Death, in the days of Edward the Third. It began 
in the winter, and while the weather continued cold 
not many persons died, though the number increased 
weekly. But in May, when the air grew warm and 
close, the sickness increased fearfully, and went on 
growing worse and worse till September, when the 
deaths were ten thousand a week. As London then 
contained not more than one-quarter of its present 
population, and was not one-quarter so large as it is 
now, we may imagine how dreadful this plague ap- 
peared to the people. The king and court fled to 
Oxford, and all who could do so shut up their houses 
and shops and went away; but they carried the in- 
fection with them, and several other places, as well 
as London, suffered terribly. 

At last the country people would not let any one 
who had been in an infected place come into their 
houses, and people camped out of doors in any soli- 
tary place they could find. In the city the sight was 
dismal indeed. Every house where the plague ap- 
peared was immediately shut up ; a red cross and 
the words " Lord, have mercy upon us ! " were marked 



2o8 Merrill's English history 

on the outside, and no one was suffered to go in or 
come out. Provisions were put in at the windows. 
All night long the dead-carts went their dismal 
rounds, and at the call, " Bring out your dead! " the 
watchers at each house brought forth the corpses, 
which were conveyed away to the nearest burying- 
ground and shot into one common grave. No fu- 
neral service was read, no friend was permitted to 
attend these gloomy interments, and few would have 
dared to do it. Men were afraid to speak to one an- 
other in the streets lest they should receive infection. 
Some suffered terribly, and would throw themselves 
out of the windows or rush into the river in their 
frenzy ; but others felt no pain and went about their 
daily business as usual, till suddenly they grew faint, 
the plague spots appeared, and in less than an hour 
all was over. 

After 100,000 persons had perished the pestilence 
seemed to be ceasing, and early in 1666 the people 
who had fled away returned to the city. But on the 
2d of September in that year began the Great Fire. 
It broke out near the spot where the Monument now 
stands on Fish Street Hill, and a tempestuous wind, 
which was raging at the time, blew the flames from 
house to house and from street to street with fright- 
ful rapidity. Four days and four nights the flre 
burned furiously, till the ancient cathedral of St. 
Paul's, eighty-nine churches, thirteen thousand 
houses, and many noble public buildings had been 
reduced to ashes. The light of the flames was seen 
forty miles off, and the clouds of smoke reached still 
further. At first the people were so astonished and 
terrified that they did nothing but run about like 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 209 

distracted creatures ; but when they regained their 
senses they took the only method of staying the prog- 
ress of the fire, by blowing up a great many houses, 
so as to make wide gaps which the flames could not 
cross. Two hundred thousand people were burned 
out of house and home and were scattered over the 
fields for several miles round, lying along by the 
heaps of what they could save from the fire. Very 
many were reduced from comfort and wealth to the 
utmost misery. The king took pains to relieve them, 
and for a little while this terrible fire seemed quite 
to have roused him out of his selfish, idle way of liv- 
ing ; but he soon returned to it. 

The fire was, however, a very good thing for Lon- 
don. The city was rebuilt in a far better way, with 
wider streets, and the houses constructed of bricks 
instead of timber; and all remains of infection were 
so utterly burned away that the plague never ap- 
peared again. Sir Christopher Wren was charged 
with the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral. The 
Monument was raised in memory of this great fire, 
and it bore for a long time an inscription signify- 
ing that the Roman Catholics had set fire to the 
city; for Protestants were still ready to blame them 
for every mischief for which they could not account. 

CHAPTER LXI 

Reign of Charles II — {continued) 

Dutch Fleet in the Thames, 1667 — Banishment of Claren- 
don—The Cabal— The Duke of York a Catholic— The 
Test Act 

(From 1667 to 1676) 

In the spring after the great fire, Charles began to 
make peace with Holland. Before it was concluded 
14 



2IO MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

he was unwise enough to dismantle his fleet and dis- 
miss the seamen. The Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, 
heard of it, sailed up the Thames, destroyed the 
arsenal at Sheerness, and hovered about Gravesend 
for some weeks. Then he appeared off Chatham 
and burned the ships which lay there. The nation 
was filled with fear and mortification, and even the 
men who loved Charles for his own sake as well as for 
his father's could not help saying, " If Cromwell or 
any one else with the spirit of an Englishman had 
been on the throne, the Dutch would never have 
dared so to insult our flag." 

The king cared not for it ; the great sums of money 
which Parliament had supplied for the fleet had 
been wasted, even while the war lasted, on the worth- 
less people about the court, while the ships and sail- 
ors were in want of everything and the poor wounded 
men were ready to die of hunger and misery. And 
now he made peace with Holland just as if nothing 
had happened. The people, determined to punish 
some one, fell upon Lord Clarendon, and blamed 
him very unjustly for all that had gone wrong. And 
the king was delighted to sacrifice Clarendon, who 
rebuked his vices and gave him a great deal of good 
advice, which he had no will to take. 

After sending Clarendon into banishment, Charles 
took to himself a set of the worst ministers that have 
ever helped a king to govern. The initial letters of 
their names* made up the word Cabal, and ever since 
the days of those wicked men that word has been 
used to signify a number of persons who join t-o- 

* These were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley-Cooper, and 
Lauderdale. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 211 

gether in some mischievous plot. The favorite plot 
of the Cabal was to enable their master to govern 
just as he pleased, with or without the consent of 
Parliament. Though the Parliament was made up 
of men who were loyal to the king, they could not 
help blaming his misconduct, and they would not 
allow him to set aside the laws. Charles wanted to 
do exactly what he pleased, and in particular to 
spend or waste as much money as he chose without 
being called to account for it. 

He also wanted to favor the Roman Catholics and 
give them some power. His brother James had be- 
come a Roman Catholic, and Charles, though he pre- 
tended to be a member of the English Church, was 
at heart a Catholic, like his brother. He began by 
setting aside, or, as it was called, dispensing with, the 
laws against the Catholics and the Protestant Non- 
conformists. Now, almost every one felt quite sure 
that this was done for the sake of the former, and 
not out of kindness to the Nonconformists; and 
all Protestant Englishmen feared that it was a be- 
ginning of what would be very bad for the country. 
Charles had no lawful children, and his brother 
James was heir to the crown. 

A great many persons were afraid that James 
would try to restore Catholicism in England. They 
would have been still more afraid if his children 
had been Roman Catholics , but he had no sons, and 
his two daughters were Protestants. As James was 
not young, they thought they should not have a Ro- 
man Catholic sovereign very long, even if he should 
out-live his brother. Still, when Charles tried to set 
aside the laws against the Catholics, they were 



2 12 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

alarmed and angry, for they thought he would bring 
many of them to high offices in the state. Besides 
this, they said it was no more lawful for Charles to 
set aside the laws without the consent of Parlia- 
ment than it would have been for him to make 
new laws. 

The king was obliged to give way, and Parlia- 
ment, to make sure that no Catholics should be em- 
ployed in the government, brought in an act called 
the Test Act, by which it was ordered that every one 
who held any office in the state should receive the 
sacrament of the Holy Communion according to the 
manner of the Church of England, and deny that he 
believed in the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transub- 
stantiation. The Duke of York, who was Lord High 
Admiral, was obliged now to give up his office ; and 
every Catholic who had any post under the govern- 
ment resigned it. But the people of England little 
thought that he who held the highest post of all, the 
king, was himself a Roman Catholic. 

Now the only way in which Charles could undo all 
that Parliament did, and make himself the abso- 
lute master of his people, was by getting help from a 
foreign power. So he promised the King of France 
that if he would give him a great deal of money and 
also send him some soldiers if necessary, he would 
do nothing to hinder his conquering other countries. 

The Cabal joined with Charles in this shameful 
agreement, and the French king gave money to them 
as well as to their master. Charles also promised 
that he would declare himself to be a Roman Catho- 
lic as soon as he could find a good opportunity to do 
so; for the King of France wished that England 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 213 

should return to the Roman Catholic Church. All 
these doings were kept quite secret. But the Eng- 
lish history of this period is so mixed up with the 
affairs of other countries, especially with those of 
Spain, France, and Holland, that it is necessary to 
say something about them. 



CHAPTER LXII 

Reign of Charles II — icontiJiued) 

France ; Ivouis the Fourteenth — Spain — Holland ; the Prince 

of Orange 

(From 1676 to 1678) 

France was the most powerful state in Europe at 
this time. The king, Louis the Fourteenth, received 
a much larger revenue and had a much larger army 
than any other sovereign. He was also very am- 
bitious, and wanted to make his large territory larger 
still by taking all the Netherlands and Holland, so 
as to make the kingdom of France reach to the river 
Rhine. He also wished to get Spain into his power. 

Spain was no longer formidable, though she pos- 
sessed much larger dominions than France. In 
Europe she had the Netherlands and a large part of 
Italy, and in America she had great and rich pos- 
sessions, whence fleets laden with gold and silver 
sailed every year to the Spanish ports. But wisdom 
had departed from the rulers of this great kingdom, 
and Spam was much less to be feared than the little 
republic of Holland. 

Holland was not much larger than Wales, and the 
land lay so flat and low that the sea would have 
washed over and destroyed it if the people had not 



214 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

walled it in with great dykes, which they were 
obliged to be always strengthening and repairing. 
But the inhabitants of this narrow territory were 
prudent and indnstrions ; they had covered their 
land with thriving farms and busy towns; their 
ships were found in every sea, and they had planted 
colonies in Asia, Africa, and America. 

The Dutch and English were very jealous of one 
another's trade, shipping, and colonies, and there 
had been a great deal of fighting between them; but 
they had more than one bond of union — both coun- 
tries were Protestant and both were free. The Eng- 
lish wished to be on friendly terms with Holland 
now, because they saw that the King of France was 
growing too powerful for his neighbors' safety; but 
Louis wished to keep the two countries at enmity. 
He thought that Holland alone would be quite un- 
able to make head against his formidable armies, 
but England and Holland together might do so. 

He had already begun to invade the Netherlands 
and the Dutch saw danger at hand, when Charles 
made an alliance with Holland and Sweden against 
France. But he did not in the least intend to keep 
faith with his allies ; he had only made this treaty 
to please his subjects and persuade Parliament to 
give him money, for he had already given a secret 
promise to Louis that English ships and soldiers 
should be sent to help him in the invasion of Hol- 
land. As soon as he had deceived his Parliament 
into granting him a large sum of money, he threw 
off the mask and declared war against his Dutch 
allies. 

It seemed now that Holland must be utterly sub- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 215 

dued, for the armies of Louis soon overran half the 
country. But William, the young Prince of Orange, 
inspired all his countrymen with hope and resolution. 
Rather than submit to a foreign master, they chose 
to destroy the labors of years. They opened their 
dykes, let in the waters, and the fields and farms 
were ruined. The invaders fled before the flood, 
and Holland was saved. As Louis for some time 
after this check could not give Charles much help, 
the King of England was obliged to make friends 
with his own people, by sending away the Cabal, 
making peace with Holland, and marrying his eldest 
niece, Mary, to the Prince of Orange. 

It was not very long before the King of France be- 
gan to give bribes to other Englishmen besides the 
king and his ministers. He thought the surest way 
to prevent England from interfering with his schemes 
was to keep the king and the people always at strife. 
So he bade his ambassador make friends secretly 
with the chief men in Parliament who were against 
the king, and promised to give them money if they 
would go on finding fault with the measures of the 
government; and some of them were mean enough 
to take his money. 

They meant to serve their country by hindering 
Charles from governing as he wished; but they 
might have known that Louis meant no good to their 
country by anything that he did. The most noted 
of these pensioners of the King of France was Alger- 
non Sidney, a man who would have liked to make 
England a republic again if it had been possible. 



.2i6 Merrill's ENGLISH history 

CHAPTER LXIII 

Reign of Charles II — {concluded) 

Titus Gates — Rye-House Plot — Lord William Russell — Death 
of Charles II — Troubles in Scotland — Ireland — Foreign 
Settlements — Sir Isaac Newton — John Milton — Great Di- 
vines — Post-Office — Habeas Corpus Act — First Standing 
Army 

(From 1678 to 1685) 

In the year 1678 England was thrown into dread- 
ful alarm. It was said that the Roman Catholics had 
concocted a horrible design, much worse than the. 
Gunpowder Plot. They were going to burn down 
London again ; to set fire to the shipping ; to murder 
the king and all their Protestant neighbors, but es- 
pecially the chief men in church and state ; and they 
were going to have troops from France and Spain to 
help them. 

Now, there is no doubt that the Roman Catholics, 
both at home and abroad, were hoping that their re- 
ligion would recover some power and favor in Eng- 
land; but this horrible plot was an invention of 
wicked men to gain money. The leader of the gang 
was Titus Gates, who had been first a Protestant 
clergyman, then a Jesuit, and now said he had be- 
come a Protestant again ; but everywhere, and at all 
times, he had proved himself to be a very wicked 
man. Yet Protestants in general, and even the two 
Houses of Parliament, believed most of what he 
said, because they were so suspicious of evil from 
the Roman Catholics. 

They believed these horrible stories the more 
firmly because the magistrate to whom Gates first 
gave information of this pretended plot was found 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 217 

murdered in a field a few days afterward. Every 
Protestant believed that the Catholics had committed 
the murder, to be revenged on him for listening to 
Oates; and now terrible calamities fell on them. 
Every one whom Oates accused — and he accused many 
innocent men — was sure to be found guilty by the jury 
and condemned to death. When other men who 
were as wicked as Oates saw that everything he said 
was believed, and that he was rewarded with a large 
pension for having discovered this plot, they, too, 
came forward with their false witness and swore 
away the lives of the innocent. The chief judges did 
not quite believe all these bad men said, but they 
were afraid to interfere, for every one who ventured 
to say a word in defence of an accused Catholic was 
looked upon by the enraged people as an accomplice 
in the plot. Had the judges been honest men, they 
would have braved this; but the chief magistrates 
then were not upright and fearless. 

The excellent judge Hale, who was on the bench 
in the beginning of Charles' reign, was dead, and 
no man like him sat in the seat of judgment. Even 
the king did nothing to save the unfortunate persons 
who were unjustly condemned. The alarm about the 
Roman Catholic plot lasted more than two years ; but 
after shedding the blood of Lord Stafford, a very 
aged and excellent man, at the bidding of false ac- 
cusers, the nation became ashamed of the delusion 
under which they had been acting, and the plot was 
heard of no more. 

Another and a real plot was found out soon after- 
ward. We have seen that many persons dreaded the 
Duke of York's coming to the throne after his broth- 



2i8 Merrill's English history 

er's death; and now a few men joined together in 
a plot to prevent him from ever being king, by giv- 
ing the crown, after the death of Charles the Second, 
to the eldest of his natural sons, the Duke of Mon- 
mouth. Monmouth had not the least right to the 
crown, but he was very handsome and agreeable 
and a great favorite with the people. Some of these 
plotters went further, for they planned to shoot both 
the king and the duke ; and as they used to meet at 
a place called the Rye-House, near Broxbourne in 
Hertfordshire, their plot was named the Rye- House 
Plot. 

These murderous designs were not told to Mon- 
mouth nor to Lord William Russell, who was one 
of the conspirators. Russell was a Protestant, led 
into an unlawful conspiracy by his great fear that 
Catholicism would be re-established in England. 
Algernon Sidney was another conspirator. All was 
found out, and the plotters were condemned to die, 
except Monmouth, whom his father forgave. The 
trials of Russell and Sidney were very unfairly con- 
ducted, and that of Russell has been particularly re- 
membered, both for his own virtues and those of his 
wife, who attended him at his trial and did every- 
thing a wife could to support and cheer his last days. 

When it was known in England that the king's life 
had been in danger from the Rye- House plotters, 
some of the love which the people had felt for him 
twenty years before began to revive again. He had 
always been very popular with all who did not know 
or c re what was done by the government; for 
Charles was very merry and amusing, and they liked 
to see him saunter about St. James' Park, as he did 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 219 

for hours every mornings chatting with every one 
who came near him and feeding his dogs and ducks. 
But the men who loved their country even more than 
they loved the king could not help being grieved 
when they thought how ill Charles had governed. 
He had thrown away every opportunity of being a 
good and glorious king, and now the end was come. 

On Sunday evening, the ist of February, 1685, the 
palace of Whitehall presented a scene of splendid but 
shameless wickedness; the courtiers gambled and 
drank deeply, the king amused himself with the 
abandoned women whom he had gathered round 
him and in whose society he chiefly delighted. All 
was luxury, profaneness, and total forgetfulness of 
God. Early the next morning Charles was struck 
with apoplexy, and though he recovered his senses, 
he lived but a very few days. In his last hours he 
professed himself a Roman Catholic, and desired that 
a priest should be sent for to admit him into the 
Catholic Church. He died on the 6th of February, 
1685. 

There had been much trouble in Scotland during 
this reign. The Scots were delighted when Great 
Britain returned under the government of its right- 
ful king, for Charles restored to them their own laws, 
which Cromwell had deprived them of. Their joy 
was much lessened when the king required them to 
receive bishops over their Church. Still, as he did 
not oblige them to use the liturgy, most of the 
people and the Presbyterian ministers submitted. 
But there were some men, especially in the west of 
Scotland, who would not hear of obeying the govern- 
ment in this matter ; they stood up for the Covenant 



220 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

which had been made in the time of Charles the 
First, and when the magistrates tried to prevent 
them from meeting together in congregations, they 
rose in open rebellion. 

Many were put to death, many more were im- 
prisoned, and some were unmercifully tortured ; for 
it was the practice in Scotland to put men to the 
torture who were accused of great crimes or of 
treason against the government. And the Covenant- 
ers were looked upon as the worst kind of rebels by 
some of the men whom Charles sent to govern Scot- 
land. The Duke of York was very cruel to them, 
but the most cruel of all was Lauderdale, the worst 
of those bad men who formed the Cabal. Never- 
theless, the more the Covenanters were persecuted, 
the more determined they were not to obey. 

Ireland had been governed during all the time of 
Charles the Second by the Duke of Ormond, a very 
wise and good man ; but there had been a great deal 
of trouble and discontent about the lands. The Irish 
Catholics whom Cromwell had dispossessed of their 
estates hoped that Charles would restore them, and 
the English settlers to whom Cromwell had given 
the lands were not at all inclined to give them back 
to their former owners. They were, however, per- 
suaded to give up a third part, and this was divided 
among some of the claimants ; but there were a great 
many who got nothing. These, of course, were 
greatly discontented, and, in general, there was a 
most unfriendly feeling between the Irish Catholics 
and the Protestant settlers. 

In the reign of Charles the Second England ac- 
quired her first possession in India — the island of 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 221 

Bombay, which had belonged to the Portuguese, and 
was given by them to the English when Charles 
married Catherine of Portugal. During the first war 
with Holland, in 1664, they increased their American 
settlements by taking New York from the Dutch. 



Englishmen had made great advances in knowl- 
edge during the last eighty years. In the reign of 
James the First, the famous Francis Bacon had 
taught his countrymen how to search into the won- 
derful works of nature. Foreigners had invented 
the telescope and the microscope, and now men be- 
gan to see glorious suns and worlds in the stars of 
our firmament, and to perceive in every flower and 
insect exquisite beauties, invisible before. Now also 
they could see myriads of curious creatures in every 
part of earth and water, which were too small to be 
discerned with the naked eye. Great progress was 
made in astronomy, in natural history, and in many 
other branches of science; but among all the wise 
and famous men of those days, and of all others be- 
fore or since, one name is especially to be remem- 
bered — Isaac Newton. Another great man of those 
times was John Milton, who wrote the famous poem 
called " Paradise Lost." 

Several great preachers and divines flourished dur- 
ing the seventeenth century. Hall and Usher, in 
the reign of Charles the First, Barrow and Taylor, 
in that of his son, were among the chief men in the 
English Church. The Nonconformists, also, had 
some famous writers; among them was John Bun- 
yan, the author of the "Pilgrim's Progress." 

During this period the post-office was first set up. 



22 2 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Charles the First began it in 1635, by ordering that 
letters should be conveyed weekly between London 
and Edinburgh, and in 1660 the plan was extended, 
and mails were carried to all parts of the kingdom. 

Among the Acts of Parliament passed in the reign 
of Charles the Second was an important one, called 
the "Habeas Corpus Act." It is looked upon by 
Englishmen almost as a second Magna Charta. This 
act provides that every person who is imprisoned 
may claim the right of being brought before a court 
of law, that it may be ascertained whether there is a 
just cause for his being committed to prison ; and it 
also provides that his trial shall not be put off longer 
than is necessary. If it were not for this law a man 
might be thrown into prison and kept there for years 
without a trial, and without even knowing why he 
was imprisoned; and this has often been done in 
some foreign countries. In times of insurrection 
or tumult, Parliament sometimes withdraws for a 
time the protection afforded by the Habeas Corpus 
Act, because it is thought that at such a time a man 
may be really guilty of treason or sedition, and yet 
it may not be expedient or even safe to bring him 
to trial immediately. This is called suspending the 
Habeas Corpus Act. 

Charles the Second was the first King of England 
who began to form a standing army ; an army, that 
is, composed of men whose only business is that of a 
soldier. The armies which had followed the Ed- 
wards and Henrys to battle and to victory were 
chiefly made up of men who left their ordinary call- 
ings to follow the trade of arms as long as their ser- 
vices were required, and returned to their former 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 223 

occupations when the war w^as over. And as long as 
bodily strength and bravery and great skill in arch- 
ery sufficed to win the day, the yeomen of England 
could contend successfully against the troops of any 
European state. But firearms had now taken the 
place of the bow and arrow, and during the last 
hundred years the great powers of Europe, Spain, 
France, Germany, and others, had waged such long 
wars that their troops had become exceedingly expert 
in the use of arms and inured to the discipline of 
military life. No men unaccustomed to war, how- 
ever brave they might be, could hope long to 
withstand these well-experienced soldiers. Charles 
raised a small regular army of seven thousand foot 
and seventeen hundred horse. Besides these, there 
were six fine British regiments serving in Holland, 
whom the Dutch government had engaged to send 
back to England whenever they should be wanted 
there. 

In the time of Charles the Second was founded the 
first military hospital in England, at Chelsea. The 
first national copper coinage was issued from the 
mint in the year 1672. 

CHAPTER LXIV 

James II, 1685 — The King Endeavors to Promote Catholicism 
— Monmouth's Rebellion — Judge Jefferies — Bishop Ken — 
Barbarous Execution of Alice Lisle and Elizabeth Gaunt 

(1685) 

James the Second was in his fifty-second year 
when he succeeded his brother. He had been twice 
married; first to Anne Hyde, the daughter of the 
Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and after her death to 



2 24 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Mary d'Este, sister of the Duke of Modena. He 
had two children, the daughters of his first wife: 
Mary, who had been given in marriage to Will- 
iam, Prince of Orange, and Anne, who had married 
Prince George of Denmark. 

The new king was a more energetic man than 
Charles the Second. He took pains to put the navy 
in good condition, and in his younger days he had 
fought bravely at sea; but his temper was stern 
even to cruelty, and he never became popular, as 
his careless, good-tempered brother had been. His 
coming to the throne had been dreaded, because of 
his zeal for Catholicism ; but his first action as king 
was of a kind to remove these fears. Half an hour 
after his brother's death he called his privy counsel- 
lors together, and declared to them that he meant 
to maintain the laws and to defend and uphold the 
Church of England. His speech was printed, and 
copies were sent all over the kingdom, to the delight 
of the people, who believed that James, whatever 
faults he might have, was strictly a man of his word; 
but it was too soon seen that he did not consider 
himself bound by any promise to maintain the laws 
and religion of his country. 

The nation was continually alarmed by some fresh 
mark of his attachment to the Catholic Church. He 
was no longer satisfied with attending mass privately, 
as he had done during his brother's reign; he would 
have it celebrated openly and with much pomp. In 
a year or two Catholic chapels arose in all parts of 
the country, monasteries were established in Lon- 
don, and a Jesuit school w^as built in the Strand 
under the patronage of. the king. The statesmen 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 225 

who were most careful to maintain the laws of the 
land were dismissed from their offices, and men 
whose chief care was to please the king were ap- 
pointed in their stead. 

The wisest of the English Roman Catholics and 
the pope, Innocent the Eleventh, who was a prudent 
man, begged James to be cautious in what he did, 
lest in his excessive haste to promote their religion 
he should only stir up the people of England to op- 
pose it the more vigorously. But the king was much 
too zealous in the cause to listen to their advice, and 
before he had been on the throne six months his 
Protestant subjects began to look on his actions 
with suspicion. 

The Duke of Monmouth, who had gone into exile 
for his share in the Rye-House Plot, now thought it 
would be a good time to venture back to England, 
to overturn the government of James and win the 
crown for himself. On the nth of June, 1685, he 
landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, and put forth a man- 
ifesto in which he pretended to be the lawful son of 
King Charles the Second, called himself the defender 
of the Protestant religion, and accused James of hav- 
ing poisoned the late king, fired the city of London, 
and committed other frightful crimes. It was so 
well known that these accusations were false that 
in most parts of England Monmouth's manifesto 
only rendered the people more ready to take up arms 
for the king. But in the west of England Monmouth 
had many adherents among the peasantry ; and the 
Nonconformists, who were very numerous there, 
took him for their champion. Many, even of their 
preachers, armed themselves and followed in the 
15 



226 Merrill's English history 

ranks of the rebel army. At the end of a few days, 
the duke was at the head of five thousand men. 
But although brave and hardy, they were no match 
for the king's soldiers, and many of them had no 
better weapons than their flails, scythes, and pitch- 
forks. 

After receiving a warm welcome at Taunton, 
where he was proclaimed king, Monmouth marched 
to Bath and summoned it to surrender ; but the city 
was strongly garrisoned for the king and the rebels 
dared not attack it. They fell back to Wells, where 
they injured and defaced the cathedral, and thence 
to Bridgewater. There they were brought to a stand 
by the king's troops, who had followed them and 
were now encamped on Sedgemoor, three miles from 
the town. On that moor took place the last fight, 
deserving the name of a battle, which was fought on 
English ground. An hour after midnight on the 6th 
of July, Monmouth marched his men to attack the 
royal camp. They fought with desperate bravery, 
but the victory could not long be doubtful. By three 
o'clock in the morning a thousand of the rebels lay 
dead on the field, and the remainder were scattered 
in all directions. 

Monmouth had not waited to witness the overthrow 
of his followers ; he fled from them at full speed, in 
hope to reach the New Forest and conceal himself 
there till a ship could be found to convey him to the 
Continent. He changed clothes with a shepherd and 
hid himself in the fields for a day or two, but the 
militia of the southern counties kept watch at ever}^ 
point and soon discovered him in his hiding-place, 
looking so gaunt and wretched that men could hardly 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 227 

believe he was indeed the once handsome and grace- 
ful Monmouth. His spirit seemed to be as much 
changed as his person, for all his former courage dis- 
appeared when he saw death nigh at hand. He 
entreated to see the king, and descended to the most 
abject entreaties for mercy, offering to join the 
Catholic Church if only his life might be spared. 
But there was no pardon for him. His execution 
was attended by a multitude of people and proved a 
most frightful spectacle, owing to the unskilfulness 
of the executioner, who struck and struck again, 
many times, before the head of the unfortunate 
young man could be severed from his body. 

In the mean time his unhappy followers were reap- 
ing in their utmost bitterness the fruits of rebellion. 
There was a Colonel Kirke, who was noted for his 
savage character; and his soldiers, who were com- 
monly called " Kirke's Lambs," were as ferocious as 
himself. These men did military execution on the 
rebels during the week following the battle of vSedge- 
moor. But Kirke was far outdone in cruelty by 
the atrocious Judge Jefferies, whom the king now 
sent down to try the rebels. The assizes which this 
man held in the western counties have ever since 
been called " The Bloody Assizes. " He hanged and 
quartered some hundreds of the prisoners, sentenced 
others to be flogged without mercy, and sent a thou- 
sand into slavery in the West Indies. Their best 
friend was Ken, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. He 
had received nothing but wrong from the rebels, who 
hated the office of a bishop ; but he returned good 
for evil, pleaded with their jailers to show them 
mercy, and bestowed largely of his income to relieve 



228 Merrill's English history 

their necessities. But it was in vain that he inter- 
ceded for them with the king. James talked with 
frightful satisfaction of "Jeiferies' campaign," and 
rewarded the cruel judge by making him lord 
chancellor. 

One of Jefferies' crimes shocked men more than 
all the rest. There was an old lady named Alice 
Lisle, who was kind to every one in distress. Two 
of the rebels fled at night to her house and implored 
her to shelter them ; they were found under her roof 
by the soldiers who were in search of them, and for 
this act of compassion Jefferies caused her to be 
found guilty of high treason, and condemned her to 
be burned alive the same day. Every one, even the 
warmest friends of the king, were so horrified at this 
sentence that Jefferies was forced to respite Alice 
Lisle for a few days, and in the mean time they 
labored hard to obtain a pardon for her; but the ut- 
most that James would do was to change the sentence 
from burning to beheading. He did not show even 
this mercy to another poor woman, who was accused 
of having relieved one of the rebels, three 5"ears be- 
fore, when he was in danger of being arrested for 
having taken part in the Rye-House Plot. Her name 
was Elizabeth Gaunt, and she was chiefly known by 
her works of charity; but she was condemned now 
to be burned alive, and suffered this terrible death 
at Tyburn with serene courage. "My fault, " said 
she, " was one which a prince might well have for- 
given; I did but relieve a poor family, and lo, I 
must die for it!" 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 229 



CHAPTER LXV 

James Annuls the Laws against Catholicism and Persecutes 
the English Church — Trial of the Seven Bishops 

(From 1685 to 1688) 

After the rebellion of Monmouth had been 
crushed, James thought himself so firmly seated on 
the throne that he might venture to set aside the 
laws which forbade him to place Catholics in high 
office. It must be remembered that in the reign of 
Charles the Second the Test Act had been passed, 
chiefly for the sake of keeping the Catholics out of 
office. During the alarm excited by the first news 
of Monmouth's rebellion, the king had greatly in- 
creased the standing army, and had placed several 
Roman Catholic officers over the new regiments; 
but this breach of the law was thought quite excus- 
able at a time of sudden fear and danger. He 
now hoped that Parliament would alter the law to 
please him, but, finding that they were not in the 
least inclined to do so, he took upon himself to dis- 
pense with the laws. 

He raised Catholics to high offices in the state as 
well as in the army, and set Catholic governors 
over the finest colleges in Oxford. He even forbade 
the English clergy to preach about those doctrines 
in which the English Church differed from the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, and when they refused he set up 
a new Court of High Commission, with the Chancel- 
lor Jefferies at its head, to prosecute all the bishops 
and clergy who offended him. Compton, Bishop of 
London, who had been the tutor of his daughters, 
was forbidden to exercise any longer his office, and 



230 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

many honest men were turned ont of their homes 
and livings because they would not be false to what 
they believed to be their duty. 

In order to overawe the city of London, James es- 
tablished a camp on Hounslow Heath, and stationed 
there thirteen thousand men with twenty-six pieces 
of cannon; but the Londoners made it a place of 
holiday amusement, went in crowds to visit the sol- 
diers, and were so friendly with them that the soldiers 
became as discontented with the king's unlawful 
proceedings as the citizens were. 

When the king found that Churchmen would give 
no encouragement to his schemes for the advance- 
ment of Catholicism, he sought help from the Non- 
conformists, and .pretended that he desired to grant 
them full liberty to worship as they thought proper. 
He then issued what is called a Declaration of Indul- 
gence, in which, by his own sole authority, he an- 
nulled not only the Test Act, but several others, and 
set aside all laws against Roman Catholics and Prot- 
estant Dissenters. This was really the same thing 
as if the king had taken on himself to make laws 
without the authority of the Parliament, and the 
wisest of the Dissenters saw that James was acting 
unlawfully in issuing such a declaration. Nor did 
they feel much confidence in his good-will ; they saw 
that he was trying to join the Roman Catholics and 
the Dissenters in a league to crush the Church of 
England, and that if he succeeded in ruining the 
Church his next step would be to destroy the Dis- 
senters. 

The scheme by which the king had hoped to re- 
duce the country into a state of absolute submission 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 23I 

to his will proved, on the contrary, a means of de- 
liverance to England and of ruin to himself. He 
commanded all the bishops and clergy to publish 
the Declaration of Indulgence in church, during the 
hours of divine service. The ministers of the church 
were thus called upon to choose once for all whether 
they would obey the king's will or the laws of the 
land ; but not one clergyman in fifty chose to disobey 
the laws. Seven of the bishops presented to the king 
a loyal and respectful petition, in which they re- 
minded him that the declaration was contrary to the 
laws of the kingdom, and said they could not in con- 
science publish an unlawful declaration in the house 
of God and during the hours of divine service. 

When the appointed Sunday came, the declaration 
was read in only four of the London churches ; and in 
more than one of these the whole congregation rose 
and walked out when the minister began it. The 
king was furious, and most of all against the bishops 
who had presented the petition to him. He declared 
it to be a false, malicious, and seditious libel, and 
imprisoned them in the Tower till they could be 
tried for their offence. They were Sancroft, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury; Ken, Bishop of Bath and 
Wells; Turner, of Ely; Lloyd, of St. Asaph; White, 
of Peterborough ; Lake, of Chichester ; and Trelawny, 
of Bristol. The people were geatly moved on behalf 
of these just men; the very soldiers who guarded 
them asked for their blessing. It was the hour of 
evening service when they arrived at the Tower; 
they hastened to the chapel, and were greatly com- 
forted by these words in the lesson for the day (the 
8th of June) : "In all things approving yourselves 



232 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflic- 
tions, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments," etc. 

On the day of their trial, the 29th of June, West- 
minster Hall and every street leading to it were 
thronged with people, high and low, rich and poor, 
waiting in extreme anxiety to know the result. On 
behalf of the bishops, it was pleaded that their peti- 
tion was not false, for every fact which it set forth 
had been proved to be true ; it was not malicious, for 
they had not sought an occasion to provoke the king, 
but he had placed them in such a position that they 
must either oppose his will or commit a great wrong; 
and it was not seditious or a libel, for they had not 
scattered complaints among the people, but deliv- 
ered to the king in private a paper most humbly and 
respectfully worded. 

The trial lasted all day, and the jury were shut up 
for the night to consider of their verdict. The next 
morning, when the judges met again, breathless ex- 
pectation stilled all the court. 

"Not guilty," said the foreman of the jury. As 
the words passed his lips, one of the peers who was 
present sprang up and waved his hat, and at that 
signal all the spectators gave a shout of joy. In a 
moment, ten thousand persons w^ho crowded the 
great hall replied with a still louder shout, and 
the next moment the innumerable throng without 
set up a third huzza, which was heard at Temple 
Bar. The boats which covered the Thames gave an 
answering cheer. In a few moments, the joyful 
news flew from Westminster to the Tower and to the 
forest of masts below. As the tidings spread, streets 
and squares, market-places and coffee-houses, broke 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 233 

forth into acclamations mixed with tears ; men wept 
for very jo}^ "God bless you and 3^otir families!" 
said the crowd who pressed round the jury, to thank 
them and shake hands with them ; " you have saved 
us all to-da5\" 

It was this conviction that made every one so glad ; 
for if it had been decided that the king had a right 
to act contrary to one of the laws and to order the 
bishops and clergy to do so, it would have been the 
same as saying that he had a right to set aside any 
law, or all the laws, if he chose — and then the nation 
would have been at his mercy. All over England 
the people made public rejoicings as if they had won 
a great victory ; and so indeed they had, the victory 
of law and right. When the news reached the king 
he was in the camp at Hounslow; it made him very 
angry, but he was still more angry when he found how 
pleased the soldiers were. His throne was already 
passing away from him, but he did not know it. 

CHAPTER LXVI 

A Son is Born to the King — The Prince of Orange Comes to 
England, November, 1688 — James Deserted by his Officers 
and by his Daughter Anne — Flight of the King — The 
Crown is Offered to the Prince and Princess of Orange — 
The Bill of Rights 

(From 1688 to 1689) 

Until the summer of 1688, the nation had borne 
the misgovernment of the king and his encourage- 
ment of Roman Catholicism, in the hope that at his 
death things would be changed ; for it was known 
that both his daughters were warmly attached 
to the faith of the English Church. But on the 
second day after the bishops were committed to the 



234 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Tower these hopes for the future were overcast by 
the birth of a son to James. 

Nearly all the nation, and even the Princess Anne 
herself, refused to believe that the infant over whose 
birth the king and queen were rejoicing was really 
their son. They said it was the son of a stranger 
who had been secretly brought into the palace, and 
it was to no purpose that the king and his wife de- 
clared the infant prince to be their own child. The 
people were firmly persuaded that the Catholic relig- 
ion permitted men to say what was not true, if it were 
for the advancement of their church; and they be- 
lieved James to be so bent upon re-establishing 
Catholicism in England that he would rather deprive 
his daughters of their inheritance, and leave the 
crown to the son of a stranger, than allow it to de- 
scend to Protestant sovereigns. 

The husband of the king's eldest daughter, Will- 
iam, Prince of Orange, had long been anxiously ob- 
serving all that took place in England. He had 
hoped that England would join in a league with 
Spain, Germany, and Holland to withstand the am- 
bitious King of France, Louis the Fourteenth, who 
was always watching for an opportunity of enlarging 
his power and dominions at the expense of his neigh- 
bors. But, instead of opposing Louis, James secretly 
received money from him, as his brother Charles 
had done ; and Louis encouraged him to disregard 
the wishes of his subjects and promised him help, 

William soon perceived that James did not care 
how much he displeased his people, or what became 
of the other states of Europe, so long as he could 
make Catholicism triumphant in England, but he did 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 235 

not Openly interfere until the summer of 1688. He 
then resolved to appear in England, at the head of a 
body of troops, and call on the nation to rise up in 
defence of their religion and liberty. Louis sus- 
pected that William was about to invade England, 
and told James so; he also offered to lend him some 
ships of war, and to send a large army to threaten 
Holland by land and so force the Prince of Orange 
to remain at home. But James would not believe 
there was anything to fear, and was very much 
offended when Louis sent word to the states of Hol- 
land that the King of England was under his pro- 
tection. 

When Louis found that James received his offers 
of assistance with reproaches instead of thanks, he 
left him to take care of himself; and the prince's 
army was ready to sail before the king would believe 
that any attack was intended. When at last he be- 
came sensible of his danger he was appalled. The 
English fleet and army were more than sufficient to 
repel a Dutch invasion; but James knew that the 
hearts of his people were no longer with him, and he 
was afraid that neither the soldiers nor the sailors 
would fight in his cause. 

During some weeks, the Dutch armament was pre- 
vented from sailing by contrary winds, and the king 
employed this time in endeavoring to regain the af- 
fection of his subjects. He restored all the magis- 
trates and clergymen whom he had displaced, abol- 
ished the Court of High Commission, and made 
some other concessions. But it was too late now; 
the people believed that he only did these things 
out of fear, and that he would be as unjust as ever 



236 Merrill's English history 

when he was no longer afraid. They rejoiced, there- 
fore, when they heard that William and his army 
had landed at Torbay. The same winds which im- 
pelled his ships along the Channel had prevented the 
king's fleet from coming out of the Thames to with- 
stand his progress. The prince bore these words 
embroidered in large letters on his flag: "I will 
maintain the liberties of England and the Protestant 
religion." His troops were composed of men of 
different nations; there were Englishmen, Swedes, 
Swiss, and Dutch, but all wore a very martial ap- 
pearance and conducted themselves in a most order- 
ly manner. They marched flrst to Exeter, then to 
Salisbury, their numbers still increasing as, one 
after another, the chief gentlemen of the country 
came to join the prince. 

James had gone to his army, which was stationed 
at Salisbury, but he did not know whom to trust; 
and when several of his own kinsmen and princi- 
pal officers went over to the prince's camp, he lost 
heart entirely and retreated hastily toward London. 
Among those who left him at this time was Prince 
George of Denmark, the husband of his daughter 
Anne, Prince George was a dull, quiet man, and 
the king did not much regret his loss ; his anger and 
dismay were far more excited by the desertion of 
Lord Churchill, a man of extraordinary genius, 
whom James had raised from an obscure station to 
wealth and honor. Lord Churchill and his wife 
were in the household of the Princess Anne, who 
loved Lady Churchill so entirely that she seemed 
to have no will but hers. 

When Anne heard of Churchill's desertion she fled 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY . 237 

with his wife from the palace by night, and, guarded 
by her former tutor, the Bishop of London, pro- 
ceeded to Nottingham, where a great number of 
gentlemen had met together to join the Prince of 
Orange. As a sincere Protestant, Anne must have 
wished to see a great change for the better in her 
father's government; but it was hard that she should 
fly from him in the time of his distress, and it 
seemed to grieve him more than all his other trou- 
bles. When he arrived in London and found her 
gone, " God help me! " he exclaimed, " my own chil- 
dren have forsaken me. " 

His other daughter, Mary, had never seen him 
since he gave her, at the age of sixteen, to be the 
wife of the Prince of Orange, and all her affection 
had long been fixed on her husband. If ever she 
wished to be some day Queen of England, it was that 
she might give all the power and dignity of her 
crown into the hands of the prince. The chief de- 
sire of James now was to get his wife and infant son 
safely away to France, and to follow them himself 
as soon as possible. He had still many loyal sub- 
jects who prayed him to make some agreement with 
the Prince of Orange, by which all things should be 
safely and happily settled, both for himself and the 
kingdom. He feigned to consent to their wishes, 
but it was only that he might leave the country with- 
out any one knowing it. Late at night on the 9th 
of December, in the midst of a violent storm, the 
queen with her infant son crossed in a boat to 
Lambeth, whence she proceeded to Gravesend. 
Two French gentlemen went with her to protect her 
by the way, and she embarked safely for France, 



238 Merrill's English history 

where King Louis received her with' a very kind 
welcome. 

Two nights after the queen had left the palace the 
king made his escape secretly, and set out for Sheer- 
ness, where he had ordered a vessel to be in waiting. 
In order to prevent any one from taking authority to 
govern in his absence, he carried away the Great 
Seal and threw it into the Thames. The Great Seal 
is employed to seal all acts of the sovereign — par- 
dons, proclamations, etc. ; with this seal they have 
the force of law, without it they have no authority at 
all. The Lord Chancellor is the Keeper of the Seal, 
but James, before he fled, desired Jefferies to give it 
up to him. It lay at the bottom of the river for a 
few months, and was then accidentally caught in a 
fisherman's net and dragged up. But before that 
time a new Great Seal had been made, bearing the 
names of William and Mary, King and Queen of 
England. 

At the time of King James' flight, the Prince of 
Orange and his army had not advanced beyond Hun- 
gerford, and the populace of London thought they 
might take this opportunity of doing as they pleased. 
So they began to plunder and destroy the Roman 
Catholic chapels and convents, and would have com- 
mitted many other outrages, if the chief persons in 
London had not agreed to take the rule into their 
own hands for a little while, and put a stop to the 
proceedings of the rioters. 

There was one man who was obnoxious to all par- 
ties — Judge Jefferies. He was discovered at this 
time lurking in a small public-house at Wapping, 
disguised like a collier, and the house was immedi- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 239 

ately surrounded by a crowd calling for vengeance 
on the unjust judge. It was well for him that a 
troop of soldiers came quickly up and guarded the 
carriage which conveyed him to the Tower, for the 
mob would have torn him in pieces. In an agony 
of terror he was conducted to his prison, where he 
died after a few months of great misery both of 
mind and body. 

King James had not been able to effect his escape. 
The vessel in which he had embarked was board- 
ed by a party of fishermen, who robbed him of 
his money, and when they found out who he was 
would not let him go on. He was brought back to 
London, but William, who heartily desired that his 
father-in-law might leave the country quietly, took 
care that he should not be prevented from making 
his escape a second time. James arrived safely in 
France and met with a most generous reception from 
Louis, who gave him plenty of money and the pleas- 
ant palace of St. Germains to live in, and did every- 
thing he could to soothe and gratify his unfortunate 
guest. 

From the nth of December, 1688, when King 
James left his palace, to the 13th of February, 1689, 
there was no King of England ; and this period is 
called the Interregnum. But the Prince of Orange 
and the chief men in the country kept all things 
quiet and in order. Parliament came together to 
consider what was to be done, but they could not at 
first agree. 

Some thought that James ought still to be called 
king, but not to have any authority, because he had 
used it so badly, and that the Prince of Orange 



240 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

should govern for him with the title of Regent. 
Others said that James must never be king, even 
in name, any more ; and, at last, almost all agreed 
that James had deprived himself of his kingly office 
by his bad government, and also by flying from his 
kingdom, and that the nation had a right to offer 
the crown to the Prince of Orange and his wife. 

In order to prevent any future sovereign from gov- 
erning unlawfully as James had done, Parliament 
drew up a famous statute, called the Bill of Rights, 
in which they set forth plainly the rights of English- 
men ; and when the crown was offered to the Prince 
and Princess of Orange, this statute also was pre- 
sented to them, and they promised faithfully to 
govern according to it. Thus was completed the 
English Revolution ; and this was the end of the long 
struggle between the sovereign and the nation which 
had been going on ever since the reign of James the 
First. Since the Revolution, whatever wars England 
may have had abroad, she has had peace at home ; 
for since James the Second fled from the kingdom, 
no English sovereign has attempted to set his own 
authority above the laws of the land. 

CHAPTER LXVII 

William III and Mary II, i68g — Character of the New King 
and Queen — Affairs of Scotland from the Death of Charles 
II to the Battle of Killiecrankie — Affairs of Ireland — 
Siege of Derry — Battle of the Boyne, July ist, i6go 
(From 1689 to 1690) 

William and Mary were proclaimed king and 
queen on the 13th of February, 1689; the prince was 
at this time thirty-eight, his wife twenty-six years 
of age. Mary was a general favorite ; she possessed 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 24I 

excellent abilities, her disposition was kind and gen- 
tle, her manners very cheerful and engaging. Only 
one fault was found with her — that she seemed too 
ready to ascend her father's throne, and had taken 
possession of his palace with an air of the utmost 
satisfaction. It was alleged in her excuse that her 
husband had entreated her to show by every out- 
ward sign that she approved of what he had done, 
and that she could not therefore express her sorrow 
for the sad fate of her father. 

William was far from being as popular as his 
queen ; he was wise and brave, but his manners were 
cold and disagreeable. The English acknowledged 
that he had rendered them a great service in deliv- 
ering them from the bad government of James, but 
they did not like him. This was not surprising, for 
he never learned to like England; his favorite 
friends were all Dutchmen ; he seldom spoke at all 
to the English gentlemen who frequented his court ; 
and when he did his conversation was not very 
agreeable. He was rude and imperious even to his 
wife, though he loved her very much. 

His health would not suffer him to live in London, 
so he amused himself with adding to the palace at 
Hampton Court and building and planting at Ken- 
sington, that he might make his English homes as 
much like the square, formal houses and gardens of 
Holland as possible. But the true delight of Will- 
iam's life was in the great concerns of war and 
politics ; and he highly valued his British kingdom, 
because it enabled him to make head more success- 
fully against that great enemy of Protestantism and 
free government, Louis the Fourteenth. 
16 



242 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

During most of William's reign, he spent a large 
portion of every year in the Netherlands, conducting 
the war with France. But he was first obliged to 
settle himself firmly in his new kingdom. The ad- 
herents of James in Scotland were not willing to 
accept William for king, and James himself had 
landed in Ireland (March 12th, 1689) and was pre- 
paring for war. 

We must now go back a little, that some account 
may be given of what had taken place in Scotland 
and Ireland since the death of Charles the Second. 

We have seen that there had been much trouble in 
Scotland, because most of the people were firmly 
persuaded that their Church ought not to be gov- 
erned by bishops, while the king, on the contrary, 
insisted that they should have bishops. Some of the 
Scottish bishops and clergy were excellent men ; but 
no goodness could overcome the aversion of the Scots 
to Episcopacy, or, as they called it, Prelacy, and they 
only waited for a favorable opportunity of throwing 
off the yoke which the king had imposed on them. 
But the men called the Covenanters were more reso- 
lute than their brethren. They braved the terrors 
of the government; and although the Scottish Par- 
liament, soon after James the Second came to the 
throne, passed a frightful law, condemning to death 
every one who attended any meeting for public 
worship in the open air, the undaunted Covenanters 
continued to meet on the solitary moors and hill- 
sides. Often the troops hunted them down, and 
there was one officer in particular, Graham of 
Claverhouse, Lord Dundee, who was their chief per- 
secutor; but nothing could intimidate them, and 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 243 

men and women alike went cheerfully to a cruel 
death. 

Among- the Scottish gentlemen who had gone into 
exile during the reign of Charles the Second was the 
Earl of Argyle, the head of the great Campbell clan. 
As soon as James the Second succeeded his brother, 
Argyle ventured back to Scotland in hope of raising 
an insurrection and putting an end to Prelacy ; but 
he had no success, and was very soon taken prisoner 
and put to death. But when King James, alarmed 
at the news that the Prince of Orange was coming, 
withdrew his troops from Scotland, the Covenanters 
rose in arms, proclaimed William king at Glasgow 
and other towns in the west, and drove the Episco- 
pal ministers from their homes. Dundee and some 
others among the chief men, especially in the High- 
lands, were ready to fight for King James, but they 
were few in number compared with those who wished 
to put an end to his government. 

On the nth of April, 1685, the Scottish Parlia- 
ment offered the crown of Scotland to William and 
Mary, and at the same time declared Prelacy to be 
unlawful. Presbyterianism now became the estab- 
lished religion in Scotland, and has continued so 
ever since. 

Dundee, in the mean time, was raising a small 
body of Highlanders, and with these he advanced to 
meet William's troops; but on the 27th of June he 
was mortally wounded while fighting gallantly at 
the Pass of Killiecrankie. He had gained the vic- 
tory before he fell, but after his death there was no 
one in Scotland capable of upholding the cause of 
James, although many of the Highland clans re- 



244 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

mained faithfully attached to him and his descend 
ants for the next sixty years. William therefore 
retained undistiirbed possession of the crown. 

In Ireland James had done everything he could to 
oppress the Protestants', who were most of them de- 
scended from English settlers, and were the most in- 
dustrious, civilized, and wealthy members of the 
community. There had not been much good feel- 
ing between the settlers and the men of the Irish 
race before James came to the throne, but theenm.ity 
was rendered much more bitter and deadly by his 
misgovernment. He sent to Ireland as governor 
Lord Tyrconnel, a very violent man inspired with 
furious zeal for Catholicism. Tyrconnel turned all 
the Protestant soldiers out of the Irish army, dis- 
missed the Protestant magistrates, and disarmed the 
Protestant militia; at the same time he armed all 
the Roman Catholic peasantry. 

In those days the native Irish peasantry were as 
savage as the tribes of South Africa are now. They 
began to wander about the country, insulting, rob- 
bing, and murdering the Protestant inhabitants, who 
found themselves, unarmed and defenceless, at the 
mercy of a horde of barbarians. Very many of them 
abandoned their houses and lands and took refuge 
in England; others repaired to Londonderry and 
Enniskillen, where the Protestants of the north of 
Ireland were preparing to fight to the last in de- 
fence of their families and their religion. 

Tyrconnel had endeavored to garrison London- 
derry for King James, but at the moment when the 
troops approached, thirteen young apprentices flew 
to the gates of the city, raised the drawbridge, and 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 245 

shut them out. The siege which followed is the most 
famous in the history of Ireland. In addition to its 
usual inhabitants, Londonderry was crowded with fu- 
gitives, and there was hardly any food in the city. 
It was closely blockaded for three months, so that 
no relief could enter, and those who died by famine 
were far greater in number than those who were 
slain by the besiegers. But the citizens held out 
resolutely, under the direction of George Walker, 
an aged clergyman whom they had chosen for their 
leader. They lived upon tallow and salted hides, 
and when these were almost all gone, and there 
seemed no help for them now but to die by hunger 
or the sword, vessels from England laden with pro- 
visions broke through the blockade on the river, 
and Londonderry was saved. The besiegers with- 
drew in despair, for they could no longer hope to 
reduce the city by famine, and they knew that troops 
were coming to relieve it by force of arms. 

Enniskillen did not suffer nearly so much; but 
the inhabitants were equally successful in repelling 
their assailants. The resistance made by these 
towns entirely prevented James from possessing 
himself of the north of Ireland. He remained in 
the south until June, 1690, at which time William 
repaired to Ireland. The two kings encountered one 
another on the ist of July, at the Boyne, near Drog- 
heda. William was wounded, but the army of 
James was utterly defeated, and he fled in haste 
from the field. Two days afterward he sailed for 
France, and never again returned either to Ireland 
or to Great Britain. 



246 Merrill's English history 

CHAPTER LXVIII 

Battle of Beachy Head — Conclusion of the War in Ii eland, 
October, i6gi — Victory of La Hogue, May, 1692 — Death of 
Queen Mary, December, 1694 — Greenwich Hospital — The 
National Debt — Peace of Ryswick, September, 1697 — 
Death of William HI, March, 1702 — Whigs and Tories — 
Glencoe 

(From 1690 to 1702) 

On the day before the battle of the Boyne, there 
had been an action in the English Channel which 
filled England with shame and vexation. A large 
French fleet, commanded by Admiral Tourville, en- 
tered the Channel, where was stationed the Dutch 
and English fleet under command of Torrington. 
Torrington had not so many vessels as Tourville and 
did not choose to encounter him; and even when 
Queen Mary and the council sent him positive orders 
to give battle, he contrived to leave almost all the 
fighting to the Dutch, who maintained the action 
gallantly for many hours, till their ships were so 
much damaged that they could hardly keep afloat. 
Then Torrington fled into the Thames, leaving 
Tourville to range the Channel unmolested. This 
disgraceful action was called the Battle of Beachy 
Head. Tourville threatened to make a descent on 
the south coast; but at the thought of the French 
landing in England men of all ranks rose up, eager 
to take arms and be led against them, and the French 
admiral ventured no further than to burn Teign- 
mouth. It was a very poor little fishing town then, 
and not at all worth the trouble of attacking; but 
Tourville burned the boats and cottages and sacked 
the church, and then the great French fleet sailed 
away. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 247 

The war in Ireland was not at an end yet; some 
towns, defended by French and Irish troops, held 
out till the autumn of the following year. Limerick 
was the last; it surrendered in October, 1691. From 
that time the Protestants in Ireland had the govern- 
ment in their own hands, and made very severe laws 
to keep down the Catholics. So, year after year, 
the ill-will between Protestant and Catholic con- 
tinued, though it no more broke out in open war. 

In the year 1632 there was a great battle at sea. 
The King of France had prepared a noble fleet and 
army to invade England and restore James to the 
throne. James had come down to the coast, ready 
to embark, the troops were getting on board, and 
Tourville was there with forty-four men-of-war to 
convoy them to the English shore, when, on the 
morning of the 19th of May, the combined fleets of 
England and Holland were seen covering the sea 
to the eastward. Then began the battle of Cape La 
Hogue. It raged furiously for many hours, till the 
French ships were obliged to flee as best they could, 
and take refuge some in one harbor, some in another. 
Thither the English pursued them, and renewed the 
fight on four successive days till the French fleet was 
destroyed. 

This battle caused great joy in England; so com- 
plete a victory had not been won for many years, 
and the nation felt safe from all danger of invasion 
now. William was absent ; but Queen Mary, in the 
midst of the general joy, was much distressed, be- 
cause there was no proper place where the wounded 
sailors who had fought so bravely could be taken 
care of. She then resolved to rear the Naval Hos- 



248 Merrill's English history 

pital at Greenwich, as a lasting- memorial of Eng- 
land's gratitude for the valor of her sailors and for 
the great victory which had blessed their arms. 

But before this plan conld be carried out Mary 
was no more. Her reign did not last long; she fell 
a victim to the small-pox in December, 1694, and 
was very deeply regretted by her husband and her 
subjects. When William was absent in Ireland or 
on the Continent, she had always conducted the gov- 
ernment with wisdom, and she was endeared to the 
people by many beneficent actions. The Naval 
Hospital which she had projected was erected by 
William in honor of her memory. Until that time 
there was no hospital for seamen in all England. 

The Vv^ar in France lasted till the year 1697, when 
Louis the Fourteenth agreed to acknowledge Will- 
iam as King of England, and to give back most of 
the towns and territories he had taken during the. 
war in the Netherlands and in Germany. 

The chief burden of the war had fallen upon the 
Dutch and English, who gained no territory by it ; 
but they had secured their freedom and well-being 
by crippling the enormous power of the ambitious 
French king. 

No contest had ever cost England so much money; 
and it was to provide for these great expenses that 
the National Debt first began to be incurred. It 
was not possible to raise all the money that was 
wanted from year to year by means of taxes, for that 
would have brought insupportable distress on the 
people; but some rich men, who had plenty of money 
to spare, lent part of it to the government, on con- 
dition that they should receive a certain sum every 



MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 249 

year by way of interest. The same thing has been 
done again and again, until the present time — for 
England has carried on many very expensive wars; 
and this money which has been lent to the govern- 
ment, and which is The National Debt, now amounts 
to many hundred millions of pounds sterling. 
Nearly thirty millions of pounds are paid every 
year by way of interest. 

All the nation rejoiced greatly at the peace of 
1697, which is often called the peace of Ryswick, 
from the place where the treaty was signed. The 
2d of December in that year was appointed for a 
national thanksgiving, and St. Paul's Cathedral, 
which had been rebuilding ever since the Great Fire 
of London, was opened on that day for the first time. 

The peace of Ryswick did not last long. James 
the Second died in September, 1701 ; and Louis the 
Fourteenth broke his engagement to William, and 
acknowledged the son of James as King of Eng- 
land. The people of England were so indignant 
at this breach of faith that they willingly took up 
arms again, and provided large sums of money for 
the expenses of the war; but in the midst of the 
preparations William died. He was injured by a 
fall from his horse, and breathed his last a fort- 
night afterward, March 8th, 1702. 

At the time of his death the people were begin- 
ning to be more attached to him than they had 
been, for they saw that he was sincerely desirous to 
promote the welfare of England. Too many of the 
chief men in the kingdom were at least as much 
concerned to promote their own advancement as 
the good of their country. 



250 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

In Charles the Second's time, the men who took 
any part in public affairs had come to be distin- 
guished by the names of Whigs and Tories. The 
Whigs were those who were most disposed to in- 
crease the power of the people, and the Tories those 
who took most care to preserve the power of the 
king and the ancient institutions of the country. 

Great and good men had always been found in 
each of these parties; but at this time there were a 
great number, both of Whigs and Tories, who would 
not do what they thought best for the country be- 
cause it was their duty to do so, but only in order 
to get titles and money for themselves. Some of the 
principal men in the state were trying to serve two 
kings at once; they were afraid that James the Sec- 
ond might some day be restored to the throne, so 
they tried to keep on good terms with him, and 
sometimes sent him word what the English govern- 
ment was going to do, by which means Louis was 
enabled to thwart William's measures. 

The chief fault of William the Third was his too 
great carelessness of human life. He sometimes 
fought battles when there was no reasonable pros- 
pect of gaining any advantage by them, and in this 
way sacrificed uselessly the lives of thousands of 
his soldiers; but the worst instance was of another 
kind. 

Among the Highland clans there was a small tribe 
called the Macdonalds of Glencoe. They lived in a 
rugged, barren valley, surrounded by the lands of the 
Campbells. The chiefs of the Campbells, Argyle 
and Breadalbane, longed to rid themselves of the 
Macdonalds, but they would not have been able to 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 25 1 

destroy them without the help of Sir John Dalrym- 
ple, commonly called the Master of Stair. 

Dalrymple had nothing to do with the people of 
Glencoe, but he hated the Highlanders, and he per- 
suaded William that this unfortunate little tribe in 
particular was a mere gang of thieves. The king 
issued an order for their destruction, and Dalrymple 
kept the order secret till he had laid his plans with 
such ingenious cruelty that he thought not even an 
infant would escape the general ruin. 

A large party of soldiers were sent to Glencoe, as 
if they came only for a friendly purpose, and were 
entertained by the Macdonalds during raany days 
with the utmost hospitality their poverty would al- 
low. But it had been settled that on a certain day 
other bodies of soldiers should surround the valley 
and stop up every outlet, while those who were al- 
ready in possession of the village should suddenly 
fall upon their unsuspecting hosts and butcher them. 
The women and children and the very aged men 
were to be left to die of cold and hunger in the snow ; 
for the houses and all they contained were to be 
burned and the flocks and cattle driven away. This 
most wicked plan failed of its full execution. The 
soldiers did fall suddenly upon their hosts, and slew 
old and young without mercy; but a few of the 
tribe escaped, because the snow lay so deep and the 
weather was so tempestuous that the soldiers who 
were to have stopped up all the passes of the valley 
did not arrive until after the massacre had begun. 

Three years passed away before this great wicked- 
ness was inquired into ; but by that time the public 
indignation had become so strong that William was 



252 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

obliged to take some notice of it. It is much to his 
dishonor that, when all the circumstances of the 
butchery were made known to him, he did not inflict 
the slightest punishment on the Master of Stair or 
on those who had oarried his infamous plan into 
execution. 



CHAPTER LXIX 

Queen Anne, 1702 — Settlement of the Crown on the House 
of Brunswick — The Marlboroughs — Blenheim — Treaty of 
Utrecht, 171 3 — Capture of Gibraltar, 1704 — Union of 
Scotland and England, May ist, 1707 — Death of Queen 
Anne, August, 1714 — " Queen Anne's Bounty " — The 
Non-jurors — The First Missionary Societies of England 
founded, 1698 and 1701 — Improvement of Manufactures 
(From 1702 to 1714) 

On the death of William the Third, his sister-in- 
law, the Princess Anne, succeeded to the throne. 
She was at this time thirty-seven years old. Anne 
was an affectionate wife and mother, and the loss 
of all her children had been a bitter grief to her, but 
especially the death of her last surviving son, who 
had lived to be twelve years of age and had been 
carefully educated in the hope that he would one 
day be King of England. 

The young prince had died in the year 1700, and 
it had then been necessary to make a new settlement 
of the crown ; for the son of James the Second was a 
Roman Catholic, like his father, and the nation had 
decided that no Roman Catholic could reign in Eng- 
land. The nearest Protestant relations of the royal 
family were the Princess Sophia of Brunswick and 
her son George, Elector of Hanover; and it was set- 
tled in Parliament that the crown should go to them 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 253 

after the death of Anne. Sophia was the daughter 
of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, and granddaughter 
of James the First. 

Queen Anne was of so kind a disposition that she 
was commonly called the " good Queen Anne ;" but 
her nature was too soft and yielding, and she allowed 
herself to be entirely guided by the people who were 
about her. Lady Churchill, the friend of her early 
years, still continued to be her chief favorite; she 
was now Lady Marlborough, for King William had 
raised Lord Churchill to the earldom of Marlbor- 
ough. During several years of Anne's reign, Marl- 
borough and his wife were the real rulers of Eng- 
land; but Lady Marlborough, though she had great 
talents, was of a most violent temper, and the queen 
grew weary of her violence at last, and turned for 
relief to an artful, soft-spoken woman, a Mrs. 
Masham, whom Lady Marlborough had placed in 
attendance on her. 

Among the chief events of Anne's reign were the 
victories of Marlborough. 

Never had England seen so wise a general. It was 
said of him that he never fought a battle which he 
did not win or besieged a city which he did not take ; 
but his genius and daring were not more remarkable 
than the patient perseverance with which he over- 
came all obstacles, and the sweetness of temper 
which enabled him to bear with and subdue the most 
unreasonable persons. He had also a beautiful coun- 
tenance and the most polished manners. He was 
greatly beloved by his soldiers, and as much admired 
by foreigners as by his own countrymen. It is sad 
to think that with so many brilliant and engaging 



254 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

qualities he had a fatilt which dimmed them all — the 
excessive love of 'money. 

The Emperor of Germany had a famous general, 
called Prince Eugene, a very good man, who loved 
Marlborough like a brother, and many of their vic- 
tories were gained together, especially that of Blen- 
heim, August 2d, 1704. Blenheim is the name of a 
place in Bavaria, where Marlborough met the French 
army and defeated it in one of the greatest battles 
recorded in history. He was rewarded for his ser- 
vices with a dukedom, and with a splendid park and 
palace which were named Blenheim in honor of his 
victory. But he had some enemies at home, and 
they contrived to poison the mind of the queen 
against him by means of her new favorite, Mrs. 
Masham. 

After nine years of continual success, Marlbor- 
ough was deprived of his command, all his friends 
were turned out of office, and the new ministers 
made a disgraceful peace with France, by giving up 
almost every advantage which had been won by the 
bravery of the British army and the genius of its 
general. This was called the peace of Utrecht, bex 
cause the treaty was signed there, March, 1713. 
The English kept the fortress of Gibraltar. They 
had been at war with Spain as w^ell as with France, 
and in the year 1704 Sir George Rooke, a brave com- 
mander, who had greatly distinguished himself in 
the battle of La Hogue, took Gibraltar by surprise 
after a few days' siege. It is one of the strongest 
fortresses m the world, and England esteems it as 
one of her most valuable possessions. 

One of the happiest events of Anne's reign was 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 255 

the union of vScotland and England, in the year 
1707. The two countries had been governed by one 
sovereign ever since the death of Queen Elizabeth ; 
but each country had its own Parliament. It was 
now settled that the Scots should send forty-five 
members to the English House of Commons and 
sixteen peers to the House of Lords, and so in fu- 
ture there should be but one Parliament for the 
whole of Great Britain. 

There was so much jealous feeling between the 
two nations that the Scots did not at first like the 
thought of the union, but they soon found the bene- 
fit of it. While each country had a separate Par- 
liament the English laws were unfavorable to the 
trade of Scotland ; but now the Scots were permitted 
to have the same advantages as the English, and they 
began to carry on such a brisk trade with the British 
colonies that the wealth and prosperity of Scotland 
increased very fast. 

Queen Anne died on the ist of August, 17 14; her 
husband, Prince George of Denmark, had died six 
years before. Anne was the last sovereign of the 
House of Stuart ; the crown now passed to the House 
of Brunswick or Hanover, 

Queen Anne restored to the Church a portion of 
the goods which Henry the Eighth had seized at the 
Reform.ation. The fund thus created is called 
Queen Anne's Bounty; it was given by her to in- 
crease the maintenance of the poorer clergy. 

Soon after the Revolution, a law was made that 
all clergymen and every one who held any public 
office must take an oath of fidelity to King William 



256 Merrill's English history 

and Queen Mary. Archbishop Sancroft, Bishop Ken, 
four other bishops, and about four hundred clergy- 
men did not think they could lawfully call William 
and Mary their sovereigns while James the Second, to 
whom they had formerly sworn allegiance, was still 
living. They gave up their benefices, and William 
appointed other bishops and clergymen in their 
stead. The deprived prelates and clergy were called 
Non-jurors. Ken had spent almost all that he pos- 
sessed in works of charity, but he carried with him 
into retirement something better than money — the 
love and admiration of every one who knew him. 
He died in 1711. 

In the reign of King William were founded the 
first great missionary societies of England — the So- 
ciety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in 1698, 
and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts, in 1701. 

The reign of Queen Anne was distinguished by a 
number of great writers, and perhaps most of all by 
the poetry of Pope and the prose writings of Addi- 
son. At this time, too, lived Defoe, who wrote the 
delightful story of " Robinson Crusoe." 

The manufactures of the country had greatly in- 
creased during the last thirty years, owing to the set- 
tlement in England of seventy thousand French 
Protestants, who had been driven from their own 
country by Louis the Fourteenth, on account of their 
religion, in 1685. Among them were several thou- 
sand of the most ingenious artisans in France ; they 
taught the English the manufacture of silk and vel- 
vet, fine glass, white paper, and other useful things. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 257 

CHAPTER LXX 

George I, 1714 — Insurrection in favor of the Pretender, 1715 — 
Death of George I, June, 1727 
(From 1 714 to 1727) 

The Princess Sophia of Brunswick had died a few 
weeks before Queen Anne ; the crown passed, there- 
fore, to her son, the Elector of Hanover. George 
the First was fifty-four years old when he became 
King of England. He could not speak one word 
of English, and was entirely a foreigner; he was 
chiefly concerned about the welfare of his German 
dominions, to increase and secure which he repeat- 
edly drew England into war. 

His first measures gave great dissatisfaction, be- 
cause he put himself entirely into the hands of the 
Whig party, displacing all men who were of differ- 
ent opinions. This provoked some of the Tories, in 
their vexation and disappointment, to assist James 
Stuart, the son of James the Second, who was plan- 
ning an expedition against Great Britain with the 
help of Louis the Fourteenth. 

In September, 17 15, the Earl of Mar proclaimed 
him king at Braemar, in the Highlands, by the title 
^i James the Third. But the friends of the House 
ot Hanover called him the Pretender, and no king. 
Several Highland chiefs joined him with their fol- 
lowers, in all about ten thousand men. Some of 
these marched to England, where Lord Derwent- 
water and other gentlemen of the north joined them ; 
but they could make no head against the troops 
that were sent down by the English government, 
and were forced to surrender at Preston, on the 13th 
17 



258 Merrill's English history 

of November, 17 15. On the same day there was a 
battle at Sheriffmuir, in Scotland, where it was 
hard to tell which side gained the victory; and the 
Jacobites, as the friends of the House of Stuart 
were called, made a song about it : 

"There's some say that we won, 

And some say that they won, 
And some say that none won at all, man ; 

But of one thing I'm sure. 

That at Sheriffmuir 
A battle there was which I saw, man. 

And we ran, and they ran, 

And they ran. and we ran, 
And we ran, and they ran away, man." 

The Earl of Mar was a very bad general, and 
when the Pretender came over it was soon seen that 
he was as tmfit as Mar to conduct such an enter- 
prise. He ventured to remain in Scotland only a 
few weeks, and then fled back to France, leaving 
his unfortunate adherents to the ruin they had en- 
countered for his sake. 

The Lords Derwentwater and Nithsdale and 
about fifty other gentlemen were condemned to 
death, and a thousand men were sent into slavery 
in the colonies. The condemned noblemen had 
shown themselves very amiable and benevolent in 
private life, and were so much pitied that everybody 
rejoiced when Lord Nithsdale, by the help of his 
■ wife, escaped from prison in woman's clothes, 

Louis the Fourteenth died about this time. His 
successor, Louis the Fifteenth, was a little child, 
and the Duke of Orleans, who ruled France as re- 
gent, was not inclined to go to war in behalf of the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY ' 259 

Stuarts. No further attempt was made in favor of 
the Pretender for nearly thirty years. 

On the nth of June, 1727, George the First died 
at Osnaburgh, in Germany. He had been King of 
England nearly thirteen years. 

CHAPTER LXXI 

George II, 1727 — Dettingen and Fontenoy — Charles Edward 
and the Rebellion of 1745 — War of 1756 

(From 1727 to 1756) 

George the Second was forty-four years old when 
he came to the throne He could speak English a 
little, but he had never been in England till he was 
thirty years of age, and his tastes and manners were 
those of a German. His wife, Queen Caroline, was 
a very sensible and beautiful woman, who inspired 
much more affection than her husband and governed 
wisely when he was out of the country. The king 
was frequently absent, visiting his native province 
of Hanover, which he loved much better than Eng- 
land. 

Like his father, George the Second often engaged 
his English subjects in war, for the sake of preserving 
his German dominions; and they murmured loudly 
that their money w^as spent and the lives of thou- 
sands of their countrymen wasted in contests with 
which they had no concern. 

It was some satisfaction to them that their German 
king and his younger son, the Duke of Cumberland, 
showed themselves to be brave soldiers. At Dettin- 
gen, in 1743, the king particularly distinguished him- 
self by the valor with which he encountered a French 
army much larger than his own. He was exposed 



26o • Merrill's English history 

during many hours to a heavy fire, but escaped un- 
hurt ; and in memory of that day he wore on all pub- 
lic occasions, to the end of his life, the clothes he 
had on at Dettingen. This was the last time that a 
King of England went to battle in person. 

The English soldiers, under command of the Duke 
of Cumberland, won equal honor, two years after- 
ward, at Fontenoy. Deserted by their Dutch and 
German allies, a column of Englishmen advanced 
alone against the French army, and in spite of the 
terrible fire which thinned their ranks, they bore a 
long while the whole brunt of the battle. Obliged 
at last to retreat, they did so in such calm, steady 
order, presenting to the last the same undaunted 
front, that their French foes declared such a retreat 
was as glorious as a victory. 

The French had again taken up the cause of the 
Pretender; and in 1744 a fine body of troops, under 
command of the great Marshal Saxe, was preparing 
to make a descent on the coast of Kent. But at the 
very outset of the expedition a violent storm drove 
many of the ships back upon the rocks, where they 
were dashed to pieces, and all on board perished. 

The French government declined to renew an at- 
tempt which had proved so disastrous ; but the son 
of the Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, a brave, 
impetuous young man, refused to wait till he could 
obtain the means of invading England. He had 
heard that many persons of note were discontented 
with the government of George the Second, and he 
knew that many of the Highland clans still loved the 
House of Stuart. All these, he thought, would 
rally roimd his standard; so in the summer of 1745 



Merrill's English history 261 

he set out on his expedition, without soldiers or 
money, and landed on the coast of Inverness. Even 
the Highlanders, who were most attached to his 
family, could not help being dismayed when they 
found that he had come alone to encounter all the 
power of the British government ; but they were too 
faithful to refuse to join him, and in a very short 
time he found himself at the head of four thousand 
men. Many of them were without proper arms and 
other necessaries, but they fought with desperation, 
routed a body of the king's troops at Preston Pans, 
and took possession of the city of Edinburgh. 

The king was in Hanover and the Duke of Cum- 
berland in Flanders, and the largest part of the Eng- 
lish army was with them ; but Charles Edward could 
not take advantage of so favorable a time for invad- 
ing England, because the Highland chiefs who had 
joined his standard were perpetually quarrelling 
among themselves, and could not unite heartily in 
any plan. When at last he did cross the border, bit- 
ter disappointment awaited him. Instead of the 
crowd of Englishmen whom he expected to rally 
round him, only two hundred came to his camp. 
Yet he advanced as far as Derby with his Highland- 
ers. The people of London were greatly terrified 
when they heard he was so near, for they had formed 
to themselves a dreadful idea of the savage ferocity 
of the Highland clans. But it was known afterward 
that during the six weeks these poor men remained 
in England, they had not committed a single out- 
rage or act of robbery, though they were often sore- 
ly distressed for food. 

The king and his son and several thousand soldiers 



262 Merrill's English history 

had now returned to England, and Charles Edward 
was obliged to retreat northward again. He routed 
a body of troops at Falkirk, but this was the last of 
his successes. That winter he and his men spent 
in the Highlands, and when spring returned they 
were gathered on Culloden, a wild, desolate moor 
five miles from Inverness. Here the Duke of Cum- 
berland came up with them and gave them battle. 
The Highlanders were utterly routed, and with ter- 
rible slaughter. But more blood was shed afterward 
than had been shed in the battle. Destruction fell 
upon the villages inhabited by the rebel clans ; and at 
the end of a few days neither house nor man nor 
beast was to be seen — all was ruin, silence, and des- 
olation. The cruel severity of the Duke of Cumber- 
land made him long remembered by the hated name 
of "The Butcher." 

Charles Edward escaped to the Hebrides. A price 
of thirty thousand pounds was set upon his head, but 
no one would betray him. He remained hidden in 
caves and thickets nearly five months ; and once a 
young lady, named Flora Macdonald, saved his life 
by dressing him up like an Irish girl and calling him 
her maid "Betty Burke." At last he got safely 
away to France, and never troubled the English gov- 
ernment again. As years advanced^ the gallant 
spirit of his youth disappeared; he gave himself up 
to vice and intemperance, and died, nearly forty 
years afterward, a despised old man. 

The war with France was ended in 1748 by a 
treaty signed at Aix-la-Chapelle; but in 1756 it 
broke out again, and led to very important events 
both in India and America. 



Merrill's English history 263 



CHAPTER LXXII 

French and English Colonies m America — Wolfe — Battle of 
Quebec, September, 1759 — Conquest of Canada 

(From 1756 to 1760) 

Both England and France had planted colonies 
in North America. The English colonies formed 
thirteen provinces reaching along the coast from 
the Bay of Fundy to the 30th degree of north 
latitude; but it was only in the province of Virginia 
that the colonists had extended their settlements far 
back toward the forests which then covered the in- 
terior of the country. These forests were the home 
ot the native Indian tribes who lived by hunting. 
The French colonies lay to the north and south of the 
English provinces. In the north, the French had 
Cape Breton and Canada; in the south, Louisiana. 

The possession of these countries made the French 
masters of the two greatest rivers of the continent, 
the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi ; but this did 
noi satisfy them. 

Both the French and the English carried on a 
profitable trade with the natives, getting from them 
abundance of beautiful furs in exchange for knives 
and other articles of European manufacture. The 
French now resolved to keep all this trade to them- 
selves. So they began to build forts on the great 
lakes of Canada and on the river Ohio, that they 
might make a complete chain of military posts be- 
tween Canada and Louisiana, and confine the English 
to the territor}" between the Alleghany Mountains 
and the sea. To prevent themselves from being 



264 Merrill's English history 

thus hemmed in, the colonists went to war, and troops 
were *ent from England to help them. 

The English did not at first conduct the war well, 
and the advantage was mainly with the French. But 
there was a great and wise statesman in England 
then, William Pitt ; and when the king put the man- 
agement of the war into his hands everything was 
quickly changed for the better. His plan was to 
drive the French quite out of the north of Ameri- 
ca and make Canada an English colony. 

Troops were despatched to several different places 
to take the forts which the French had built, and a 
talented and brave young general, named Wolfe, 
was sent against Canada with orders to take Quebec, 
the capital city. This was by no means an easy en- 
terprise, for Quebec was well fortified and very 
strongly situated on a steep rock overhanging the 
river St. Lawrence. The French had also erected 
fortifications and stationed troops at every point 
where the English could land; and their commander. 
General Montcalm, lay encamped near the city with 
ten thousand men to guard it. Wolfe's force was 
not so numerous, but his men were ready to follow 
him anywhere. He found a little cove under the 
rocks, where it seemed less hard to effect a landing 
than at the other points, embarked his men at mid- 
night, and silently, under the cover of the darkness, 
approached within two miles of the city. They 
landed unseen, clambered quickly up the rocks, and 
stormed the battery which guarded them ; and at 
daylight the men of Quebec saw with astonishment 
a British army ranged in order of battle before 
their entrenchments. 



Merrill's English history 265 

The battle which took place that day (September 
13th, 1759) won for England a noble territory, three 
times the size of Great Britain ; but it cost the lives 
of both the commanders. Soon after going into 
action Wolfe received two severe wonnds, but he sup- 
pressed all signs of pain and continued at the head 
of his troops, till a third shot struck him in the 
breast and brought him to the ground. He was car- 
ried to the rear, where he lay faint and bleeding, 
supported in the arms of a soldier. Just before he 
breathed his last he heard a cry, " They run ! they 
run ! " " Who run? " asked the dying general. " The 
French," said a wounded man near him ; " they are 
giving way in all directions." Wolfe roused all his 
remaining strength, sent a message to the officer who 
was commanding in his stead, giving him clear 
directions how to secure the full benefit of the victory ; 
and then, knowing that he had fulfilled all his 
charge, "God be praised," said he; "I die happy." 
With these words he expired. Quebec was at once 
given up to the English, and all Canada soon fol- 
lowed it ; Cape Breton they had taken already. 

Two or three years afterward, the French ceded 
their colony of Louisiana to the Spaniards, and never 
again established themselves in any part of North 
America. 

CHAPTER LXXIII 

Clive and the Sepoys — The Mogul Empire — English and 
French Setdements m India — The Black Hole — Battle of 
Plassy, 23d of June, 1757 

In India the English had won great power and 
dominion during the last few years, and their sue- 



266 Merrill's English history 

cess was chiefly owing to the astonishing genius of a 
yonng man named Robert Clive. Clive had never 
been trained for a soldier ; he was brought up to keep 
accounts, and went out very young to Madras as a 
writer in the service of the East India Company. 
But when he saw his countrymen in great danger, 
from the animosity of the native princes and the ill- 
will of the French colonists in India, he quitted the 
pen for the sword. 

The story of his exploits is like a romance, for he 
never feared with a hundred men to encounter thou- 
sands, and he was never beaten. More than half of 
his soldiers were always Sepoys — that is, Indians 
armed and disciplined in the European fashion ; but 
the Sepoys loved him as much as his own country- 
men did. They showed this once in a beautiful 
manner. Clive was shut up in a town with three 
hundred men and besieged by ten thousand. There 
was no food left in the town except a little rice ; 
Clive was obliged to hoard this up carefully, and 
give only a very little to each man for his daily por- 
tion. But the Sepoys came to him and begged that 
he would take all their share for himself and his 
European soldiers ; they said they did not want so 
much food as Europeans, and the water which was 
strained from the rice when it was boiled would do 
very well for them. Of course Clive did not accept 
this generous offer; and happily none of them had to 
endure hunger long, for every attempt of the besieg- 
ers to storm the walls was repulsed with such des- 
perate valor, and cost them so many lives, that they 
lost heart and went away suddenly in the night, 
leaving all their guns behind them. 



Merrill's English history 267 

It is necessary to know a little of the history of 
India, or it will not be possible to understand any- 
thing about the wars which ended in giving England 
the rule over that vast territory. 

When Henry the Eighth was King of England, a 
brave Mahometan prii^ce, named Baber, came from 
Tartary, conquered a large portion of Hindostan, 
and founded what is called the Mogul Empire. His 
grandson, the great Emperor Akbar, extended his 
kingdom yet further, and by his prudent government 
made the empire exceedingly rich and powerful. 

Akbar's great-grandson Aurungzebe ruled Hin- 
dostan from 1659 to 1707, and the splendor of his 
court was famous all over Europe and Asia ; but 
when he died the power and glory of the Mogul Em- 
pire died with him. His descendants still bore the 
name of the Great Mogul, but they were emperors 
only in name. 

Each province of their empire was large enough 
to form a kingdom, and the governors whom they 
set over the provinces and who were called by 
various titles — Nabobs, Soubahdars, etc. — made 
themselves kings, and paid no obedience to the Great 
Mogul unless it suited them to do so. Some prov- 
inces fell under the power of the Mahrattas and other 
warlike tribes who inhabited the mountainous coun- 
tries in the west of Hindostan. But every part of 
India was distracted by the quarrels of its princes, 
whether they were nabobs or chiefs of the mountain 
tribes; one ruler was perpetually trying to put him- 
self in the place of another. 

For a long while the English who were in India 
took no part in these quarrels. We have seen that 



268 Merrill's English history 

the merchants of England first formed a company 
for trading to the East Indies in the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth. In those days the emperors of Hindostan 
were great and powerful. They permitted the Eng- 
lish traders to establish themselves by degrees at 
several places on the coast, arsd to build towns and 
forts for their protection. One of the chief English 
settlements was at Madras, in the province called 
the Carnatic. 

The French had also formed settlements in India ; 
their chief town, Pondicherry, was about eighty-five 
miles from Madras. During the first war between 
England and France in the reign of George the 
Second, the Frenchmen of Pondicherry seized on 
Madras. They were obliged to give it back when 
France and England made peace in 1748, but the 
French and English settlprs in India never became 
friendly again. They could not openly make war 
on one another while England and France were at 
peace, but they mixed themselves up in the quarrels 
of the native princes, and made war in that way. 

Two princes were contending which of them 
should be Nabob of the Carnatic ; the French took 
part with one, the English with the other, and the 
prince whom the French favored gained the victory. 

He rewarded his allies by making them masters 
over a very large territory, and they resolved that 
they would keep the English settlers down now, or 
perhaps drive them away from India altogether. It 
was at this time that Clive began to display his won- 
derful powers; and he soon made his countrymen at 
Madras feel that they need not fear their French 
neighbors. But the exploit for which Clive is most 



Merrill's English history 269 

renowned took place in another part of India, in the 
province of Bengal. 

In 1756 the Nabob of Bengal was a young man 
named Snrajah Dowlah; he was excessively cruel 
and in all respects a bad, foolish prince. The chief 
settlement of the English in his dominions was at 
Calcutta, and he thought he should gain great riches 
by plundering it. There was no Clive there; the 
people were mostly merchants, occupied quietly in 
their trade, and the governor of the settlement and 
the commander of the few soldiers who garrisoned the 
fort were both utter cowards. They were so fright- 
ened when they heard the nabob was coming to be- 
siege the town that they never even tried to defend 
it ; they jumped into a boat and took refuge in the 
nearest ship, leaving the unfortunate settlers to de- 
fend themselves as they could. 

At the end of two days Calcutta was taken, and 
one hundred and forty-six Europeans fell alive into 
the hands of Surajah Dowlah. He promised to spare 
their lives and then retired for the night, bidding 
his guards keep them safely. They obeyed the in- 
junction by thrusting them all into a small prison 
chamber called the Black Hole. 

The room would have been too close even for one ' 
prisoner, for it was the hottest season of the year, 
when the air is like the breath of a furnace ; and 
although there were two little windows, they were 
closely barred. When the English were bidden to 
enter they thought the' guards must be joking with 
them, but they soon found out their mistake. They 
were driven in at the point of the sword, and the 
door was instantly closed on them. The night that 



270 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

followed has never been forgotten. Struggling in 
the agony of suffocation, the prisoners cried for 
mercy, they strove to burst the door, they offered 
large bribes to the jailers; but all was in vain. 
They were told that the nabob was asleep, that 
nothing could be done without his orders, and that 
he would be angry if any one awoke him. Then the 
captives went mad with despair ; they trampled one 
another down, fought for the places next the win- 
dows, entreated the guards to fire among them and 
put an end to their misery at once. And the guards 
looked through the bars and laughed at their frantic 
struggles. At length the tumalt died away in low 
moanings. The morning came ; the nabob awoke 
and permitted the door to be opened. Twenty-three 
ghastly figures, one of them a woman, all so changed 
that their own mothers would not have known them, 
staggered feebly amid heaps of corpses. One hun- 
dred and twenty-three of the prisoners had died dur- 
ing that dreadful night, and the burning heat was 
already turning their bodies to corruption. 

When the terrible story of the Black Hole reached 
Madras, the whole settlement cried aloud for ven- 
geance. Between two and three thousand men were 
collected as soon as possible, and embarked for Ben- 
gal under the command of Clive. The nabob, who 
had more than twenty times as many soldiers, with 
abundance of artillery and all the munitions of war, 
besides immense treasures of money, had never sup- 
posed that the English would dare to invade his ter- 
ritory. He was confounded at the boldness of Clive, 
and still more at his success ; for the English general 
quickly regained Calcutta, and when he found that 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 27 1 

the nabob was looking for assistance to the French, 
he marched against the settlement which they had 
founded in Bengal and took that. 

Surajah now thought it would perhaps be easier to 
destroy the daring Englishman by treachery than by 
open force. So he made a great show of respect, 
professed his sorrow for all that had happened at 
Calcutta, and declared that he would henceforward 
be the ally of the English. But in the mean time 
he was sending messengers with rich gifts to the 
French commander in the Carnatic, entreating him 
to hasten to Bengal and destroy Clive. 

When Clive found out that he had to do with a 
man who could never be trusted to speak the truth, 
he too stooped to deception. He pretended to be- 
lieve Surajah's words, but he secretly promised one 
of his ministers that he would make him nabob in 
his master's stead, and he only waited for a favorable 
opportunity of fulfilling his promise. 

The day soon came. It was just twelve months 
after the miserable catastrophe of the Black Hole 
when Clive set forward for Plassy, where the nabob 
lay encamped. The English general had increased 
his force to the number of three thousand, and he 
had ten small guns. On the 23d of June, 1757, he 
came in sight of Surajah's army. It made a splendid 
show; horse and foot, fifty-eight thousand in num- 
ber, covered all the plain. A few French auxiliaries 
were there also, and fifty great guns, each drawn by 
a long team of white oxen and pushed on from be- 
hind by an elephant. But this formidable-looking 
host had no confidence in their leader and no love 
for him, while Clive's little band believed their com- 



272 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

mander to be invincible. Their first eager onset 
threw the army of the nabob into such confusion 
that it never rallied again ; in one hour all the host 
were scattered. The guns, the oxen, the elephants 
— everything belonging to the nabob's troops be- 
came the prize of the victors. 

That one battle made the English the real masters 
of Bengal, for the new nabob whom Clive placed on 
the throne looked on them as his lords. He thought 
he could not do enough to show his gratitude to 
Clive, so he took him into the treasure-house, where 
the princes of Bengal had heaped up gold and silver 
and precious stones for many generations, and bade 
him help himself. Clive took gold to the value of 
between two and three hundred thousand pounds; 
an immense sum, but it looked very little indeed in 
the midst of the heaps of gold which filled the 
treasure-chambers. 



CHAPTER LXXIV 

Victories at Sea — Anson — Death of George II, October, 
1760 — General Corruption of Morals — The Methodists — 
The Change of Style — Canals first constructed in Eng- 
land — Travelling in those Days 

We must not leave the reign of George the Second 
without saying something of its naval exploits. It 
would take too much space to relate the many actions 
at sea in which the British flag was victorious, but 
one must be mentioned, because it was looked upon 
both by friends and foes as an instance of extraor- 
dinary daring. 

In November, 1759, the French fleet had just left 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 273 

the harbor of Brest, when it was overtaken by 
an English squadron tinder command of Admiral 
Hawke. The night was closing in black and stormy, 
and the French fleet endeavored to escape the en- 
counter by running close under the shore, which is 
there exceedingly rocky and dangerous. Hawke 
could not be deterred from pursuing them, although 
his pilot warned him that he was running a terrible 
risk of shipwreck; and in spite of the rocks, the 
storm, and the darkness, he gained a complete vic- 
tory. Six of the enemy's ships were taken or de- 
stroyed; the rest fled into the rivers, where the 
English fleet could not follow them. But of all the 
brave seamen of this reign, Anson has left the most 
famous name behind him, owing to his voyage round 
the world. He and his crew met with innumerable 
dangers and endured much hardship and misery ; but 
after nearly four years' absence he returned at last 
in triumph, bringing with him a great Spanish 
treasure-ship which he had captured, and which 
contained such a quantity of money that thirty- 
two wagons were needed to convey it from Ports- 
mouth to London. 

On the 25th of October, 1760, George the Second, 
now seventy-six years of age, rose in his usual 
health, but an hour afterward he fell to the ground 
and expired almost immediately. He had reigned 
more than thirty-three years. His wife. Queen Caro- 
line, had died twenty-three years before. His eldest 
son also, Frederic, Prince of Wales, had been dead 
some time. Prince Frederic had been on very un- 
friendly terms with his father, and his death was not 
much regretted by any one. His eldest living son 



274 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

now succeeded to the throne by the title of George 
the Third. 

The people of England had not improved in 
morals during the reigns of George the First and 
Second, nor did those kings set a good example to 
their subjects. The ministers of state bribed men to 
vote for them and support their government, by giv- 
ing them the public money; and members of Parlia- 
ment were not ashamed to be bribed. Pitt had no 
hand in these shameful doings ; he could neither be 
bribed himself nor would he bribe other men ; but 
there were few men in power who resembled Pitt. 
Among the clergy there were not many men who 
took much pains to instruct the people. The conse- 
quence of all this was that the nation had gone back, 
instead of advancing in piety and virtue. 

A few young clergymen of Oxford, whose com- 
panions called them Methodists^ because of their strict 
and devout life, were deeply grieved at the ignorance 
and vice which prevailed among the people. They 
went forth and preached in the churches, the streets, 
the barns, wherever they could find hearers; and 
their labors were wonderfully successful. John 
Wesley is the most noted of these earnest men. He 
endeavored at first to keep the multitude of his con- 
verts in close union with the English church, but 
afterward separated from it; and the sect which 
bears his name is now the most numerous body of 
Dissenters in England. 

During the reign of George the Second a charge 
took place in the way of reckoning the year. It is 
generally called the Change of Style, the old way of 
reckoning being called the Old Style and the new 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 275 

way the New Style. For a great many hundred 
years it was reckoned that the year contained exactly 
365 days, 6 hours. But astronomers found out that 
this was eleven minutes too much ; and, in the year 
1752, the eleven minutes too much which had been 
given to this great number of years amounted to 
eleven days. In several countries of Europe the 
error had been corrected long before, but not in Eng- 
land ; so the same day which Frenchmen, Germans, 
and Italians called the 13th of September, English- 
men called the 2d. It was now settled by Parlia- 
ment that the English reckoning should be made 
right by leaving out eleven days; so in the year 
1752 the day after the 2d of September was called 
the 14th, which -it really was. A great many people, 
however, did not understand this, and they conceived 
a strange notion that eleven days of life had been 
taken from them by an act of Parliament, and ran 
after the ministers calling out angrily, " Give us back 
our eleven days ! " Another change was made at this 
time : the year had been reckoned to begin on the 
25th of March, but now it was settled that the ist of 
January should be New Year's day. 

It was in the reign of George the Second that Eng- 
lishmen first began to construct canals. We who 
live in these days of good roads and canals and rail- 
ways can hardly picture to ourselves what it was to 
travel in England a hundred years ago. For a coach 
to go fifty miles in one day was thought very good 
travelling indeed, and there were very few roads on 
which it was possible to make so much speed. Most 
of the highways consisted of a narrow paved cause- 
way in the middle, with a breadth of soft mire at 



276 Merrill's English history 

each side. The cross-roads had not even a causeway, 
and were so full of holes and quagmires as to be im- 
passable either for man or beast during many weeks 
of the winter. Where there was a navigable river 
goods were conveyed by water ; elsewhere, by slow, 
heavy wagons, and still more frequently by pack- 
horses, which travelled in long strings, forty or fifty 
in a file. • 

A little canal was begun in Lancashire in 1755, 
but the first great work of this kind was the Bridge- 
water Canal, begun in 1759. It was constucted by 
Brindley, the wisest engineer of his time, at the de- 
sire of the Duke of Bridgewater; and it runs from 
Manchester to Worsley, a distance of seven miles. 
The tunnels by which the canal was conveyed, un- 
derground and the aqueduct which carried it over 
the river Irwell caused great astonishment and ad- 
miration; for such works were new in England. 
But these served as models for many others. The 
Bridgewater Canal was so very useful that within 
forty years fifty more canals were constructed in 
England and AVales. 

CHAPTER LXXV 

George III, 1760 — End of the Seven Years' War — Attempt to 
Tax the American Colonies followed by War — The Colo- 
nies declare themselves Independent in 1776, and are 
given up by England at the Peace of 1783 — Defence of 
Gibraltar, 1779 

(From 1760 to 1783) 

George the Third was twenty-two years old when 
he became king. At the time of his accession, Eng- 
land seemed to have reached the height of honor and 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 



277 



prosperit}' ; for the British arras had been successful 
in every quarter of the world, and the young- king 
succeeded to a much larger empire than any of his 
predecessors. He was welcomed with the most affec- 
tionate loyalty by the people, who rejoiced that they 
had at last a sovereign who was their own country- 
man. All his tastes and habits were English; he 
loved the country with all his heart, and made it his 
boast that he had been born a Briton. England has 
had monarchs of greater ability, but never one who 
was more truly a good man than George the Third. 
His chief failing was a too inflexible will. When 
he had formed a resolution it was hardly possible to 
induce him to alter it; and as he did not alwa3^s 
resolve upon the wisest possible measures, this too 
obstinate determination proved on some occasions 
very unfortunate. 

When he became king England was at war with 
France, and France was soon joined by Spain; but 
the English arms were victorious over both. Pitt 
was no longer at the head of the government, and 
his successors made peace in 1763, by giving up 
for nothing some of the most valuable acquisitions 
which England had made during the war. 

The contest which was ended b}^ this unworthy 
peace is generally called the Seven Years' War. It 
had been an expensive war, and the king and some 
of his ministers thought it would be a great help to 
impose some taxes on the English colonies in Amer- 
ica. Instead of a help, this proved to be one of the 
most injurious schemes ever devised. The thirteen 
American provinces were not all governed in the same 
way ; some chose their own governor, others had a 



278 Merrill's English history 

governor appointed by the king. But they all en- 
joyed a great deal of freedom, and in proportion as 
they became more powerful and populous they wished 
the authority to be more entirely in their own hands. 
Yet the colonists loved the land of their forefathers, 
and in most American families England was still 
spoken of as "home." 

Until this time th@ authority of the English gov- 
ernment had not pressed heavily on the colonies, 
and they were particularly valuable to the mother 
country on account of the great trade which was 
carried on with America, and the quantity of British 
manufactures which the colonists consumed. 

The first tax was attempted to be imposed in the 
year 1765 ; it was a duty on stamps which the law re- 
quired to be affixed to all law-deeds. But the colo- 
nists thought the English Parliament had no right to 
tax them, since they sent no members to it ; and they 
were so indignant that the government gave way. 

About two years afterward, however. Parliament 
passed another act which was quite as offensive to 
the colonists. It imposed a duty on all tea, glass, 
paper, etc., imported into the American provinces. 
When the first cargo of tea on which duty was de- 
manded arrived in Boston harbor, a party of forty or 
fifty young men, disguised like American Indians, 
went on board the ships and threw all the tea into 
the sea. This was done very quietly, and it seemed 
but a little thing; but it was the beginning of a 
long contest between the colonies and the miother 
country which ended in their separation. 

All the provinces united to resist by force what 
they considered the tyranny of England, and the 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 279 

king and the people of England were equally deter- 
mined to make them submit. But Pitt and some 
other wise statesmen thought that England was treat- 
ing her colonies very unjustly. The first skirmish 
in this unhappy war took place at Lexington, in 
April, 1775, and two months afterward there fol- 
lowed the battle of Bunker's Hill. 

The war was very badly conducted on the part of 
England. On the side of the Americans there was 
more wisdom ; and they had, in particular, one great 
and good man whom all looked up to as a leader — 
George Washington. The best men among the col- 
onists hoped that the contest might be quickly ended 
by the British government consenting to do them 
full justice ; but when they found that England was 
resolved to force them into submission, the thirteen 
provinces joined to declare themselves free states, 
independent of Great Britain. This was the begin- 
ning of the republic of the United States, July 4th, 
1776. 

In the following year the British army under Gen- 
eral Burgoyne was quite hemmed in by the Ameri- 
can forces and obliged to capitulate. France now 
acknowledged the American republic as an indepen- 
dent state, and made an alliance with it; so that 
England had to make war against France as well 
as against the colonies. In Parliament there were 
many men who thought it would be better to end 
the war at once, by ceasing to regard the Americans 
as rebels and acknowledging their independence ; but 
others thought it would be shameful to consent that 
England should lose so large a portion of her empire. 

Pitt, now become Lord Chatham, was one of these. 



28o Merrill's English history 

He thought the British government ought to have 
treated the colonies very differently, but he did not 
think they ought to give them up. He was very 
ill and feeble when he entered the House of Lords 
for the last time, supported in the arms of his sons. 
He stood up to speak against the proposed separation. 
" I thank God," said he, "that the grave has not yet 
closed upon me — that I am yet alive to lift up my 
voice against the dismemberment of this ancient and 
noble monarchy." He was asked to point out by 
what means the separation could be avoided, and 
rose once more to reply to this question ; but before 
he could utter a word he pressed his hand to his 
breast and fell down in a fit. It was the stroke of 
death. He survived but a few weeks longer, and 
was interred, amid the regrets of the nation, with all 
the honors which England bestows on the men who 
serve her best. 

The war continued nearly five years longer, and 
America was joined by Spain and by Holland, as 
well as by France. The English arms obtained 
several victories by sea, but the most famous exploit 
of those years was the defence of Gibraltar. Gibral- 
tar had been taken by the English in the year 1704. 
The Spaniards had in vain tried to recover it ; but 
now they thought there was an excellent opportunity 
of doing so with the help of France. So in the sum- 
mer of 1779 they blockaded Gibraltar by land and 
sea, and continued the siege during several years. 
Governor Elliott and the garrison maintained the 
defence with the utmost resolution ; but in the fourth 
year of the siege the assailants thought themselves 
sure of success. A French engineer contrived huge 



Merrill's English history 281 

floating batteries of such strength that it was thought 
the British guns could not destroy them; they were 
mounted with 142 pieces of artillery, and by the 13th 
of September, 1782, everything was ready for a last 
tremendous assault. 

Governor Elliott was aware of the vast preparations 
the besiegers had been making, and he had devised 
a sure method of frustrating them. He ordered that 
red-hot balls should be fired from the guns of the 
fort. This had been done during many hours, and 
yet no impression seemed to be made on the batteries, 
for they were covered with raw hides, which would 
not take fire; but just as night w^as closing in, one of 
the batteries was seen to be on fire ; several red-hot 
balls had lodged in its sides and could not be extin- 
guished. And now there was a very terrible and yet 
beautiful sight. The great volume of flame which 
rose into the air lit up the ships, the rock, and the 
fortress, so that the British gunners could see plainly 
to take aim at midnight. Ship after ship, battery 
after battery, caught fire, and the sea and sky, far and 
near, were reddened with the blaze. The men who 
manned the burning vessels threw themselves into 
the sea, choosing drowning as the easier death ; but 
their lamentable cries reached the ears of the garri- 
son, and as soon as the victory was made sure they 
put out boats and strained every nerve to rescue the 
unfortunate men. In this way the lives of several 
hundred Frenchmen and Spaniards were preserved. 

In America the British commanders acted so im- 
prudently that, at last, all their troops became pris- 
oners to the French and Americans. England was 
now convinced that peace must be made; and in 1783 



282 Merrill's English history 

treaties were concluded between Great Britain and 
France, Spain, Holland, and the United States of 
America. Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, 
and all the territory north of them remained to Eng- 
land ; the rest was lost. The king was grieved to 
lose so valuable a portion of his empire, but he said, 
" I was the last man in my dominions to consent to 
the independence of the colonies, and I will be the 
last man to do anything to injure it. " 



CHAPTER LXXVI 

Domestic Habits and Character of George III — His Illness, 
and the Joy of the People at his Recovery — Improve- 
ments in Machinery and Manufactures — Use of the 
Steam-engine — Increase of London and other Towns — 
Voyages of Discovery ; Captain Cook — John Howard — 
Wilberforce and Clarkson — War in India 
(From 1783 to 1793) 

After the conclusion of the peace with America, 
England .enjoyed ten years' quietness. William 
Pitt, a son of the great Earl of Chatham and the 
inheritor of his father's noble qualities as well as of 
his name, became the principal minister of state. The 
year after George the Third came to the throne, he 
had married the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh- 
Strelitz. He lived, as far as it was possible, in re- 
tirement, surrounded by his children; and the palace 
presented a scene of domestic virtue and happiness 
such as had not for a long while been witnessed at 
the court. 

In public the king behaved with great dignity, 
but in his hours of retirement he delighted to go 
about plainly dressed and conversing familiarly with 



Merrill's English history 283 

every one he met; and there was a hearty, homely 
good-nature in his character which made the people 
give him the name of " Farmer George." He was 
honored, nevertheless, as much as he was loved, and 
well deserved to be so. Innumerable anecdotes are 
related of his pious and benevolent conduct, but none 
more pleasing than that of his meeting with a poor 
ragged child one day when he was out hunting and 
had become separated from his attendants. The 
little girl, not knowing to whom she was speaking, 
begged him to come to her mother, who was very 
sick indeed. The king followed her to a wretched 
hovel, where he found a poor woman dying; and 
when his attendants, who had been in search of him, 
came up to the hut, they found him kneeling by the 
poor sufferer and reading the Bible to her. 

In the year 1788 the king was attacked with a 
serious illness, and his mind was so much affected 
that it was feared he would never regain his reason. 
But at the end of a few months he recovered, and 
the joy of the nation was so great that the king said 
it was worth while to have been ill that he might 
see the affectionate pleasure with which the people 
greeted his recovery. 

During these years of peace great improvements 
were made in the manufactures of the country. Just 
before the American war, some ingenious men, of 
whom Arkwright is the most noted, had invented 
machines for spinning cotton far more quickly than 
it could be done by hand. Next came the invention 
of machinery for weaving, and some years afterward 
the use of the steam-engine to move all these and a 
thousand other machines. 



284 Merrill's English history 

James Watt, who perfected the steam-engine and 
first made engines fit for all kinds of machinery, be- 
gan his useful labors about the year 1770. All these 
inventions proved of the greatest service ; they en- 
abled the manufacturers of Great Britain to work in 
cotton, wool, iron, etc. , much better and much more 
quickly and cheaply than before, so that they ex- 
ported vast quantities of goods to foreign countries. 
This increase of trade brought great wealth to- the 
nation, and enabled it to bear the burden of the long 
and terrible war in which Great Britain and all 
Europe were soon to be involved. 

At the same time that these inventions and im- 
provements were being made at home. Englishmen 
were busily engaged in exploring unknown lands and 
seas. The king took great interest in these expedi- 
tions of discovery, and especially in the labors of 
Captain Cook, who made his three famous voyages 
between 1768 and 1779. Other voyagers were ex- 
ploring the northernmost parts of Amicrica, and 
twenty thousand pounds were promised by act of 
Parliament to any one who should find a northern 
passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 

There was a traveller of a different kind who must 
not be forgotten even in this little history — John 
Howard, who went about to find out the miseries of 
the most guilty and wretched of his fellow-men, that 
he might relieve them. Being High Sheriff of Bed- 
fordshire, his attention was drawn to the miserable 
condition of the prisoners in the county jail. This 
led him to search into the state of other prisons, and 
he found them all alike — damp, filthy, unaired, and 
unwarmed. 



Merrill's English history 285 

He could not be happy till he had tried to get this 
great evil remedied ; and when he had done all that 
he could for the prisons in England he travelled 
into Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and Turkey. 
Everywhere he examined into the state of the pris- 
ons, and pleaded with the rulers of those countries 
that they would put a stop to the needless misery, 
and even cruelty, to which the prisoners were sub- 
jected. He died at Cherson, in South Russia, in 
January, 1790, far away from his own home and 
friends, but so much honored by the natives of that 
country that three thousand persons of all ranks fol- 
lowed him to the grave. 

. At the same time that Howard was pursuing his 
benevolent labors, other good men, and in particular 
Clarkson and Wilberforce, were taking pity on the 
negroes, and endeavoring to get the dreadful slave- 
trade between Africa and the West Indies abolished. 
Until this time English people had not thought much 
about the slaves, and they knew hardly anything of 
the sufferings they endured during their passage to 
the West Indies. Wilberforce and his friends were 
obliged to labor hard for years before Englishmen 
generally could be made to understand the extreme 
misery to which the negroes were exposed. 

In India, which was the only part of the British 
possessions where any war was going on, the English 
had found some determined enemies. Hyder Ali, 
who had raised himself from a soldier to be King of 
Mysore, and his son Tippoo Saib, were the most 
formidable. They hated the English, had numerous 
armies, and were assisted, like several other native 
princes, by French officers, who trained their sol- 



286 Merrill's English history 

diers and taught them how to manage artillery. 
Warren Hastings, the most celebrated governor 
whom England has ever sent to India, broke the 
power of Hyder ; and some years afterward Tippoo 
Saib came to his end, being killed at the storming of 
his capital city, Seringapatam. But this was not till 
1799, and by that time England had to deal with far 
more powerful enemies nearer home. 



CHAPTER LXXVII 

The French Revolution — Napoleon Bonaparte — Arthur Wel- 
lesley — The Battle of Assaye 

(From 1789 to 1803) 

While England was enjoying peace and prosperity, 
a terrible storm had been gathering over the kingdom 
of France. During a long time the kings of France 
had governed vv^ith absolute power; and for hundreds 
of years the middle and lower classes of the people 
had submitted to laws which in England would have 
been thought intolerably unjust. No man who was 
not of noble birth could rise to high office in the 
state, the church, or the army. The nobles and the 
clergy possessed two-thirds of all the land in France, 
yet they did not pay taxes like the rest of the people. 
The farmers and peasantry were subjected to innu- 
merable exactions, and it was no common thing for 
the poor to be almost in a state of famine. 

For a long time all this was endured with wonder- 
ful patience ; but during the last fifty or sixty years 
the evils which afflicted the country had become far 
worse than before. The last King of France, Louis 
the Fifteenth, had been one of the worst men that 



Merrill's English history 287 

ever sat on a throne ; the story of his wickedness and 
of his frightful death is one of the most terrible in 
history. He was surrounded by men like himself; 
and some even of the clergy whom he raised to the 
highest stations in the church were men of shame- 
less character. 

Crowds of noblemen and courtiers, who would not 
do the least thing to earn a living for themselves, 
hung about the palace, receiving pensions from the 
king and living in the most extravagant manner at 
the public expense. The people, ground down with 
taxes to pay for all this vice and luxury, became at 
last almost mad with misery and anger at the in- 
justice done to them. 

While France was in this state, Louis the Fifteenth 
died, and his grandson, Louis the Sixteenth, came 
to the throne. He was an amiable man, who heartily 
desired to be a just ruler and to make his subjects 
happy ; but he had no wisdom or strength of mind 
to fit him for governing in such difficult times. 

It was soon after he became king that France be- 
gan to help the American republicans; and when 
the Frenchmen who had been in America came back 
and told their countrymen how m that land every 
man who was able to render great services to his 
country might rise to the highest offices, they be- 
came more and more discontented that this was not 
the case in France. Besides this, a great deal of 
money was needed to pay for the expenses of this 
war and the Seven Years' War; and it was hard to 
find money now, for the luxury and extravagance of 
the former reign had wasted the riches of the 
kingdom. 



288 Merrill's English history 

It was resolved at last that the States General 
should be called together, to try to set the affairs of 
the nation in order. This was an assembly like 
the English Parliament, consisting of deputies from 
the nobility, the clergy, and the middle class of 
the people ; but the deputies of the third class soon 
overpowered those of the other two, and the assembly 
was no longer called States General, but National 
Assembly. It proceeded to abolish all the privi- 
leges of the nobility and clergy, and took away 
almost all power from the king. But while the Na- 
tional Assembly was making laws, wicked men were 
stirring up the lower orders of the people to commit 
horrible murders and outrages. The king and his 
family had more than once a very narrow escape for 
their lives. Most of the priests and men of noble 
birth who were able to get away fled from the king- 
dom, and at last the most violent and wicked men 
in France took the government into their own hands, 
murdered the king and queen, declared France a re- 
public, and put to death thousands of persons of all 
ranks and ages for no crime but that they were of 
noble birth, or that they had loved the king, or, very 
often, because they were too virtuous to approve of 
the crimes which were daily committed. 

The new rulers of the French abolished public 
worship, and declared that there was no God; the 
observance of Sunday was forbidden, and every 
tenth day was appointed to be kept as a holiday 
instead. 

England and all Europe looked on with amaze- 
ment and horror while these events were proceeding. 
Yet there were some men in the English Parlia- 



MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 289 

ment, and especially the famous Charles James Fox, 
who made excuses for the crimes which had been 
committed by the French revolutionists, because 
the French nation had suffered so much oppression 
and misery before the Revolution. But very few 
Englishmen agreed with them, particularly when it 
was found that bad men in their own country were 
trying to stir up the people to rebel, with the assur- 
ance of help from France. 

As for the French, they declared themselves ready 
to fight all the kings in Europe. The Prussians and 
some of the German states had already, in 1792, in- 
vaded the north-eastern frontier of France ; but the 
invasion only served to exasperate the Republicans, 
and even the Frenchmen who did not much care 
whether their country was a republic or a kingdom 
were indignant at the thought of its being invaded 
by foreigners. The young men of every village 
volunteered to become soldiers, and all France was 
turned into a camp. Some of these men, when 
the opportunity came, showed that they possessed the 
genius of a general to command, as well as the 
bravery of a soldier in the fight; but the man who 
was soon to show himself able, above all others, to 
rule both the army and the state, was a young officer, 
a native of Corsica, named Napoleon Bonaparte, 

In the same year, 1769, in which this mighty con- 
queror was born in Corsica, Ireland gave birth to the 
great man who was to arrest his progress and over- 
come him at last — Arthur Wellesley, afterward Duke 
of Wellington. He first distinguished himself in 
India, where his brother. Lord Wellesley, was for 
some years governor-general. It was soon observed 
19 



290 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

that the regiment commanded by Colonel Arthur 
Wellesley was a model for all the others, the men 
were so well taught and trained. He looked care- 
fully to their comfort; but he would not permit 
them to commit the least outrage, or to take any- 
thing from the natives without paying for it. 

One of his Indian victories surpasses anything that 
is related of Clive. Of all the mountain races who 
had conquered kingdoms for themselves out of the 
great Mogul empire, the Mahrattas were the fiercest ; 
and about the beginning of the present century they 
became very formidable adversaries to the English 
in India. In September, 1803, a Mahratta army, 
amounting to fifty thousand men, assembled at As- 
saye ; they had with them one hundred and twenty 
guns, worked by European artillerymen. To oppose 
this force, General Wellesley had between four and 
five thousand men and seventeen guns, not one of 
which could be brought into action, because the tre- 
mendous cannonade of the Mahrattas disabled at the 
very outset the animals which were drawing them. 
From the same cause, one-third of the British troops 
were soon stretched on the field ; but with the hand- 
ful of men that remained Wellesley entirely routed 
the Mahratta army, and took ninety-eight of their 
guns. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 29 1 



CHAPTER LXXVIII 

War with France — Unsuccessful Expeditions to Holland — 
Naval Conquests and Victories — Admiral Nelson — The 
Irish Rebellion, 1798 — The French in Egypt — Victory of 
Aboukir Bay, August, 1798 — Bonaparte Quits Egypt, 
August, 1799 — The French Army in Egypt Capitulates, 
1 80 1 — Bonaparte Raises himself to Supreme Power in 
France — His Animosity to the English 
(From 1793 to 1803) 

In 1793 Great Britain and most of the European 
states had joined in a league to resist France. The 
war continued without cessation for nine years ; but 
Britain was soon deserted by the states that had 
been her allies when it began. 

In Holland many of the people sided with the 
French, and drove out their Stadtholder, the Prince 
of Orange. England endeavored to restore him, and 
twice sent expeditions for that purpose; but neither 
expedition was successful, and the British troops 
suffered extremely from sickness and the want of 
necessar)^ comforts. Indeed, Holland seemed to be a 
fatal country to Englishmen ; for, several years after- 
ward, when a third attempt was made to overthrow 
the French dominion there, and a noble army of forty 
thousand men left the shores of England, the greater 
number of them were speedily laid low by the marsh- 
ague, and but a sickly feeble remnant returned to 
their homes. 

At sea England was triumphant; the valuable 
Dutch colonies of Ceylon, the Spice Islands, and the 
Cape of Good Hope were taken, and the French lost 
their West Indian sugar islands. But during the war 
in the West Indies thousands upon thousands of Brit- 



292 MERRILL'S ENGLISH HISTORY 

ish soldiers perished by the yellow fever, which raged 
for three years like a plague. In 1794 Lord Howe 
had obtained a great victory over the French fleet off 
Brest; and in 1797, at Cape St. Vincent, Sir John 
Jervis defeated the Spaniards, who had nearly twice 
as many ships and gnns as himself. This victory 
was chiefly owing to the heroic conduct of Nelson, 
who was soon to become the most celebrated of Eng- 
lish seamen. The defeat of the Spaniards at Cape 
St. Vincent was followed in a few months by that of 
the Dutch fleet, which was entirely beaten by Ad- 
miral Duncan, at Camperdown. 

But these triumphs at sea were followed by a serious 
trouble near home. In 1798 a multitude of the Irish 
people, encouraged by promises of assistance from 
France, broke out into rebellion and began to commit 
frightful excesses. Many persons were murdered, 
and a great deal of mischief was done by the rebels 
before they could be put down by the king's troops. 
Their hopes of aid from France were disappointed. 
A fleet had been despatched to them, laden with war- 
like stores and having on board a number of French 
officers, who were to teach the rebels how to resist 
regular soldiers ; but Admiral Duncan had taken nine 
of the ships and chased the others into port, so that 
no aid arrived until the rebellion was already sub- 
dued. Then, indeed, a small body of French sol- 
diers landed at Killala, but it was too late for them 
to do any mischief, and at the end of a fortnight they 
surrendered themselves prisoners. 

While the Irish rebellion was in progress, Bona- 
parte had embarked with a large army for the East. 
He had formed plans for establishing the French do- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 293 

minion in Egypt and overthrowing the British power 
in India. When Admiral Nelson heard in what di- 
rection BonaxDarte had sailed, he guessed that some 
mischief was intended against the British empire in 
the East, and hastened in pursuit of the French fleet. 
On the ist of August, 1798, he came in sight of it at 
Aboukir Bay, and prepared immediately for battle. 
The French were superior in the number of ships, 
men, and guns, but that was a consideration which 
never troubled Nelson. The action lasted through the 
night. In the midst of the fight, when all was dark- 
ness save for the flashes of the guns, the flag-ship of 
the French admiral took fire. Nelson, who had been 
wounded just before, got upon deck again to order 
out boats and do everything he could to save the 
men on board the burning vessel; but the flames 
soon reached the powder — there was a terrible crash, 
louder than all the roaring of the artillery, and in a 
moment all was over — the noble ship was blown into 
a thousand pieces. When morning dawned, the Eng- 
lish found themselves in possession of almost all the 
French fleet, and the few vessels which remained un- 
taken fled in all haste. 

Another English sailor. Sir Sydney Smith, drove 
Bonaparte back from Syria by throwing himself in- 
to the citadel of Acre with a few seamen, and hold- 
ing out against the assaults of the French till they 
had exhausted all their stores and ammunition and 
were obliged to retreat to Egypt. There Bonaparte 
suddenly left his army and went back to France. 
The troops he left behind him were afterward de- 
feated by a force sent from England, and laid down 
their arms. This was the end of the attempts made 



294 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

by France to destroy the empire of the British in 
India. 

Bonaparte had left Egypt because he heard that 
the French people were tired of the rulers they had 
chosen for themselves, and he thought the time was 
come when he could raise himself to the supreme 
power. At first he only took the title of First Con- 
sul ; but he had in fact all the power of the most ab- 
solute king, and at the end of a few years he caused 
himself to be crowned emperor with great pomp. 

He put an end to many of the evils which had 
afflicted France during the Revolution, and founded 
useful institutions for the advancement of educa- 
tion, manufactures, and trade. But these good works 
were not of so much service as they might have 
been, because Bonaparte was always at war. For a 
few months, indeed, there was peace, and the people 
of England, who had been nine years at war, rejoiced 
greatly when a treaty was signed at Amiens, in 
March, 1802 ; and they hoped that Europe would be 
in quietness for a long while to come. 

But Bonaparte did not wish for anything more 
than a short cessation of arms; so he presently re- 
fused to perform his part of the treaty, and then 
charged the English with breaking their engage- 
ments. He had set his heart on being master of 
all Europe at the least, and he hated the English 
nation because they would never give way to him. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 295 



CHAPTER LXXIX 

Bonaparte Threatens to Invade England — Battle of Trafalgar, 
and Death of Nelson, October 21st, 1805 — Death of Pitt, 
January, 1806, and of Fox, September, 1806 

(From 1803 to 1S06) 

In May, 1803, war was declared again. Bonaparte 
had already conquered Italy and Prussia. Russia, 
Austria, and all the German princes were so beaten 
by him that they were forced to submit to his will. 
Their soldiers were not wanting in bravery, but they 
had no commanders with genius like Bonaparte's to 
lead them. 

For two years Bonaparte threatened to invade 
England. More than twelve months were consumed 
in the vast preparations he made for this enterprise, 
and every port in France and the Netherlands which 
looks toward the shores of Great Britain resounded 
with the labors of his artisans. A large flotilla of 
gunboats, armed with four hundred pieces of artil- 
lery, and an army of one hundred and fifty thousand 
men, were assembled at Boulogne. But neither the 
old king nor the people of England ever gave way 
to fear. 

Men of all ranks and professions came forward in 
crowds, and volunteered to act as soldiers for the de- 
fence of their native land. In a short time more 
than three hundred and forty thousand men had been 
provided with arms, and were devoting all their 
leisure hours to the practice of military exercises. 
Fortified camps were formed at Chatham, Dover, and 
Chelmsford, and bodies of troops were stationed at 
several places in the southern and eastern counties. 



296 Merrill's English history 

After all Bonaparte's mighty preparations, he was 
never able to embark any part of his army, for the 
harbor of Boulogne was incessantly watched by Brit- 
ish ships ; and after a long period of anxious expec- 
tation the people of England heard that the troops 
which were to have invaded their shores had been 
marched into Germany. 

In October, 1805, Nelson fought his last and great- 
est battle against the fleets of France and Spain. In 
the hope of bringing the French admiral to battle, 
Nelson had chased his fleet through the Mediterra- 
nean to the Nile, from the Nile to the West Indies, 
and from the West Indies back to the coast of Spain, 
and he rejoiced greatly when at last he beheld his 
foes before him. They outnumbered him both in 
ships and guns, but he felt sure that he should win 
the day and also that he should die ; and so it was. 
When he had ordered his ships, " Now," said he, " T 
can do no more ; we must trust to the great Disposer 
of all events and to the justice of our cause. I 
thank God for this great opportunity of doing my 
duty." And he gave these words as the signal for 
action — " England expects every man to do his duty. " 
At that signal all the crews raised a shout of joy. In 
the midst of the fight, while Nelson's own ship was 
engaged with three others, he was mortally wounded 
by a shot from the rigging of one of them, and sur- 
vived but an hour or two in great suffering. But he 
lived long enough to know that the desire of his 
heart was accomplished; his men had done their 
duty, and the naval power of the enemy was so en- 
tirely broken that during all the remainder of the 
war there were no more battles at sea to fight. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 297 

This famous action is called the battle of Trafal- 
gar; it was fought on the 21st of October, 1805. But 
all the glory and the benefits of the victory could not 
reconcile Englishmen to the death of Nelson. The 
whole nation mourned for him, and he was interred 
with the utmost honor in St. Paul's Cathedral. 

His solemn funeral was quickly followed by an- 
other occasion of national mourning. A few months 
after the victory of Trafalgar Pitt died, worn out in 
the prime of his years by labor and anxiety for the 
welfare of his country. He had ncA^er taken thought 
for his own interest; all his cares were for England. 
He, too, was interred with the utmost solemnity in 
Westminster Abbey, by the side of his great father; 
and ere the year expired his famous rival and succes- 
sor. Fox, was borne to the same illustrious place of 
sepulture. 



CHAPTER LXXX 

The Peninsular War — Battle of Corunna, and Death of Sir 
John Moore, January i6th, 1809 — Victory of Salamanca, 
July 22d, 1 81 2 — Wellington enters Madrid — Victory of 
Vittoria, June 21st, 1813 — Wellington enters France, Oc- 
tober 7th, 1 81 3 — Victory of Toulouse, and end of the Pen- 
insular War, April loth, 18 14 — Bonaparte's Russian Cam- 
paign, 1812 — He Abdicates the Empire of France, April, 
1814 

(From 1806 to 18 14) 

From 1808 to 18 14, England was engaged in a war 
which is commonly called the Peninsular War, be- 
cause it was fought in Spain and Portugal, the coun- 
tries which form the chief peninsula of Europe. 

Bonaparte had taken possession of Spain and Por- 
tugal by an act of treachery. The King of Spain, 



298 Merrill's English history 

who was a weak, unprincipled man, readily consented 
when Bonaparte proposed to him that they should 
seize Portugal and divide it between them. The 
Portuguese royal family, unable to resist the force 
brought against them, sailed away to their South 
American possessions in Brazil. Three months after- 
ward, Bonaparte invited the King of Spain and his 
son to visit him at Bayonne ; and when they arrived 
he told them they were his prisoners, and obliged 
them to sign a paper by which they gave up their 
rights to him. 

He immediately proclaimed his brother, Joseph 
Bonaparte, King of Spain. But the people of Spain 
and Portugal did not choose to be given away to for- 
eigners, and they entreated England to help them to 
drive out the French armies and the new king who 
had been set over them against their will. 

Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had now returned from 
India, was sent to Portugal with ten thousand men, 
and obliged the French troops to quit that country. 
Another general, Sir John Moore, a brave, good 
man, greatly loved by his soldiers, was sent to Spain, 
but he was not so successful in his undertaking. 
His troops had to contend not only with the French 
forces, but with famine and inclement weather, and 
were forced to return to England. But before they 
could embark they had to fight a great battle at Co- 
runna; and although they won the victory, it was 
dearly purchased with the loss of their gallant gen- 
eral. They buried him sorrowfully on the ramparts 
of the city, and then went on board their ships. 

The management of the war was now intrusted to 
Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was soon created Viscount 



Merrill's English history 299 

Wellington in honor of his victories ; and as years 
went on and he still added victory to victory, he was 
raised to the dukedom. He had very hard work to 
do; Bonaparte poured armies into the Peninsula till 
he had three hundred thousand men there, and Wel- 
lington had only thirty thousand British troops under 
his command. All the best generals of France came, 
one after another, to contend with him. He had to 
teach the Portuguese how to fight, and make good 
soldiers of them, able to defend their country against 
the French ; and he had also to bear patiently with 
the Spanish generals who would not follow his ad- 
vice, but were constantly bringing their troops into 
difficulty and disaster. He had also many other 
vexations, t)ut his resolute perseverance under all 
these difficulties is more glorious than even his vie 
tories. 

It is not possible here even to name all the battles 
in this war, but two of the most important must be 
mentioned — Salamanca and Vittoria. After gaining 
the victory of Salamanca, in July, 181 2, Wellington 
entered Madrid, the capital of Spain, and the intruder 
king, Joseph Bonaparte,, never returned to it again. 
The French had now been driven out of the south 
and centre of the country, and after losing the bat- 
tle of Vittoria, in June, 1813, they were obliged to 
quit the Peninsula altogether. In this action. King 
Joseph Bonaparte and his army were so completely 
routed that they fled from the field, leaving guns, 
baggage, and everything behind them. Among 
the spoils were several thousand carriages, laden 
with the choicest treasures of the Spanish churches 
and palaces, and the English commander was well 



300 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

pleased to be able to restore these things to their 
proper owners. 

Wellington now took the fortresses of Pampeluna 
and Saint Sebastian, the last places which remained 
to the French in Spain ; then he crossed the Pyre- 
nees and advanced into France. All this cost very 
much fighting and bloodshed, for there were at least 
eight battles before the last, which was fought at 
Toulouse, April, 1814; in this, also, Wellington won 
the victory, and with it ended the Peninsular War. 

No English general except Marlborough, and, in 
days of old, the Black Prince, and few men in any 
age or country, have run such a career of victory as 
Wellington did in this war. But although his bat- 
tles had been fought in a good cause, to rescue the 
oppressed nations of the Peninsula from the tj'ranni- 
cal usurpation of Bonaparte, he could not but think 
mournfully of the multitude of brave Englishmen 
who had fallen during those six years of fighting; 
and of Frenchmen and Spaniards half a million had 
lost their lives. There was hardly a village in the 
Peninsula in which the peasantry had not taken up 
arms to resist the invaders. 

All this misery and destruction had taken place 
because Bonaparte insisted on robbing the Spaniards 
and Portuguese cf their own country. But at the 
very time that Wellington was fighting at Toulouse 
the last battle of the Peninsular War, Bonaparte had 
already been obliged to resign his usurped power. 
He abdicated the throne of France and Italy on the 
nth of April; but in those days there was neither 
railroad nor electric telegraph, and several days had 
passed before the people in the south of the country 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 30I 

knew that Napoleon Bonaparte was no longer their 
sovereign. 

He had worn out the patience of the French na- 
tion. During several years, they had been too proud 
of his victories and conquests to complain of the 
enormous number of men who fell in battle, or of 
the heavy taxes which they were obliged to pay to 
provide for the expenses of his wars; and besides 
this, Bonaparte had always made the nations whose 
countries he invaded furnish him with mone}', so that 
the expense did not greatly distress the French. 
But in the year 1812 he invaded Russia, and thereby 
brought about his own ruin. 

When the accounts of Wellington's successes in 
Spain reached him, he was exceedingly angry; but 
he said he would soon subdue the English in the 
Peninsula when once he had made himself master 
of Russia. Italy, Germany, Holland, and Flanders 
were already at his feet ; the little republic of Switzer- 
land and the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden 
were obliged to obey him ; the Emperor of Russia 
was his ally. But this was not enough. The Russian 
emperor would not always sacrifice the good of his 
subjects for the sake of pleasing Bonaparte; so he 
resolved to invade his dominions and force him to 
obey. " I must," said he, "make but one nation of 
all the countries of Europe, and Paris shall be the 
capital of it and of all the world. " As for England, 
that, of course, was to be brought to obedience as 
soon as Bonaparte had disposed of Russia and 
Spain. But " man proposes and God disposes. " 

In the summer of 181 2 the French emperor gath- 
ered under his banner the most splendid army that 



3C2 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Europe had ever seen — four hundred and fifty thou- 
sand men, with countless stores of artillery. The 
Russians had two noble armies, one in the north, the 
other in the south of the empire ; but both together 
did not equal that of Bonaparte. But they had on 
their side two allies which all Bonaparte's soldiers 
could not overcome. The first was the love of the 
Russians for their emperor and their native land, so 
that they chose rather to waste their fields and burn 
their dwellings than leave food or shelter for the 
enemy; and the other was the Russian winter. 

From the end of June to the middle of September 
the French marched through a wilderness, and lost 
a hundred thousand men by the way. But when, on 
the 14th of September, they saw before them the 
domes and spires of Moscow, they thought their 
troubles were at an end. The city was silent and 
deserted — all the people had gone away; but there 
were the famous palaces of the Kremlin, the houses 
and shops full of all good things ; and the troops ex- 
ulted greatly that they had got into such comfortable 
quarters for the winter. It was only for a day. 
When night came, flames were seen rising from a 
hundred different places. Every part of the city was 
on fire, and it could not be extinguished, but burned 
on, day after day, till four-fifths of Moscow was in 
ashes. In this miserable heap of ruins the French 
army remained five weeks, with nothing to eat but 
the flesh of their horses, which they killed and 
salted down. 

It was quite plain now that Russia would not be 
conquered that year ; so Bonaparte prepared to re- 
treat to a warmer climate before the winter should 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 



303 



overtake him. But when he tried to go southward 
he found a Russian army barring the way, and he 
was obliged to return through Smolensk and the 
western provinces, the way by which he had come. 
And in the first week of November came that terri- 
ble winter, with snow-storms and frost that never 
thawed. The men, already weakened by hunger, 
dropped by thousands, and rose no more ; the falling 
snow quickly buried them. Swarms of Cossacks 
hovered about the skirts of the French army, and 
killed great numbers ; and at several posts they found 
bodies of the regular troops waiting to give them 
battle. And thus, by cold, famine, and the sword, 
tens of thousands perished, week by week, and a 
great multitude were made prisoners. 

By the end of November, of all that splendid host 
with which Bonaparte had thought to conquer Rus- 
sia, but fifty thousand men remained, and some of 
these were so fearfully frost-bitten and disfigured 
that they scarcely looked like human beings. He 
set off alone for Paris, and ordered three hundred 
thousand more soldiers to be levied directly. But 
the Prussians and all the German nations he had 
been trampling under foot rose up now and shook 
off his yoke ; and the Russian armies began to march 
toward France. The year 18 13 was spent in fight- 
ing, and there were some terrible battles, in which 
hundreds of thousands perished. But it was all in 
vain; by the beginning of 18 14 the French were en- 
tirely driven out of Germany. 

Again Bonaparte required three hundred thousand 
soldiers and double taxes; but this time they did not 
come at his call. The French were weary at last of 



304 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

sending out their sons and brothers to die miserably, 
that one man might be master of the world. vStill, 
with such men as he could collect, Bonaparte did his 
utmost to keep the Allies out of France; but it was 
too late. The English were already in the south of 
France ; the Russians and Prussians entered the north 
and threatened to besiege Paris. Bonaparte was 
obliged to descend from the throne to which he had 
raised himself ; and it was agreed that the crown of 
France should be given to Louis the Eighteenth, the 
brother of the unfortunate king who was put to death 
in the Revolution. 



CHAPTER LXXXI 

The Allied Sovereigns in London, June, 18 14 — Bonaparte Re- 
turns to France, and Resumes the Throne, March, 181 5 — 
His Final Overthrow at Waterloo, June i8th, 1815 — His 
Imprisonment at St. Helena — Union of Ireland with 
Great Britain, January i, 1801 — George HI becomes In- 
sane — The Prince of Wales Appointed Regent, Febru- 
ary, 1811 — Latter Years of the King — His Death, January, 
1820 

The isle of Elba had been given to Bonaparte for 
a residence, and he took up his abode there in the 
beginning of May, 18 14. In the following month, 
the Emperors of Russia and Austria, the King of 
Prussia, and a brilliant throng of foreign princes and 
generals visited London and received a triumphant 
welcome. All Europe rejoiced greatly that peace 
had come at last. But about nine months afterward, 
while all the kings and great men were considering 
how to settle the affairs of the European states, 
which had been thrown into confusion by the wars 
and changes of the last twenty years, news was 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 305 

brought to them that Bonaparte had escaped from 
Elba, landed in France, summoned his old soldiers 
to join him, and marched into Paris without meet- 
ing the slightest opposition. 

At first they would hardly believe it ; but it was 
true. The French nation, and especially the mili- 
tary men, were not inclined to settle quietly down 
under the government of Louis the Eighteenth, a 
prince of advanced years, whose pacific virtues they 
did not value. No sooner did Bonaparte show him- 
self than some of the very generals who had prom- 
ised Louis the Eighteenth that they v.ould defend 
his throne turned against him. 

On the 20th of March, 1815, Louis fled to the Neth- 
erlands, and Bonaparte once more took up his abode 
in the palace of the Tuileries. But this second em- 
pire lasted only two months. All the kings who had 
made war upon him before took up arms against him 
now. The first armies which were ready were those 
of the English under Wellington and the Prussians 
under Blucher. These gathered on the frontiers of 
Flanders, and Bonaparte with one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand men hastened to overwhelm 
them, as he hoped, before the troops of other nations 
should be in the field. On the i6th of June he at- 
tacked the Prussians at Ligny, and drove them back 
after terrible slaughter. On the same day, at Quatre 
Bras, one of his marshals attacked a portion of the 
English army, and was not repulsed until there had 
been a great loss of life on both sides. 

The following day the English commander with- 
drew his men to the field of Waterloo. There, on 
the 1 8th of June, Bonaparte and Wellington met in 
20 



3o6 Merrill's English history 

battle for the first and last time. Bonaparte had 
under his command seventy-five thousand men and 
three hundred and fifty pieces of cannon; Welling- 
ton had not nearly so many guns. His soldiers al- 
most equalled the French in numbers, but half of 
them were foreigners, not accustomed to fighting in 
the British army, and so unwilling to face the French 
that some of their regiments ran away as soon as 
they were ordered to go into action. The rest of the 
foreign troops behaved bravely, but the brunt of the 
battle was borne by the tAventy thousand British in- 
fantry, who stood firmly, hour after hour, receiving 
the tremendous charges of the French. The loss of 
life was frightful, but those brave men never wa- 
vered, and when, after eight hours, the signal was 
eiven to advance and the whole British force rushed 
forward, the French army never waited to receive 
them. It broke into utter confusion. Bonaparte 
saw it and fled, and his troops fled, too — horse, foot, 
and artillerymen, all mingled together. The Prus- 
sians came up just in time to see their foes flying, 
and undertook the pursuit, which the English were 
too weary to follow up. 

This defeat was much more than the loss of a bat- 
tle to Bonaparte; it was the loss of an empire. He 
had escaped to Paris, but the French would have 
no more fighting to keep him on the throne. He 
went to Rochefort and tried to embark for America, 
but the harbor was watched by British ships, and 
his only resource was to surrender himself a pris- 
oner to the captain of one of the men-of-war. 
He wanted to live in England, but the allied sover- 
eigns had determined that his next place of abode 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 307 

should be one from which he could not again escape 
to disturb the peace of Europe. The island of St. 
Helena was appointed for his residence, and a thou- 
sand pounds a month granted for his household ex- 
penses. He died six years afterward in this place of 
exile. Thus ignobly ended the days of one of the 
mightiest conquerors the earth has ever seen. 

When the victory of Waterloo was made known in 
England, the exultation of the people was greater 
than for all former successes : partly because an Eng- 
lish army had now met the very emperor himself, 
face to face, on the field of battle, and vanquished 
him ; but chiefly because the sad work of slaughter 
was over at last. There would be no more such 
battles, now that Bonaparte's power was entirely 
broken up. It was only this thought, the Duke of 
Wellington said, that at all consoled him for the 
death of the brave men who had fallen on that field. 



We must now go back several years to relate some 
events which had taken place since the beginning of 
the century. On the ist of January, 1801, Great 
Britain and Ireland were united, as Scotland and 
England had been in the reign of Queen Anne. Up 
to this time Ireland had had a separate Parliament, 
but it was ordered that twenty-eight Irish peers 
should be elected to the British House of Lords, and 
one hundred and five members to the House of Com- 
mons. 

In the year 1810 a great affliction fell upon the 
good old king. His youngest daughter, the Princess 
Amelia, a very lovely and amiable lady, died after 
a lingering illness. She was especially dear to her 



3o8 Merrill's English history 

father, and his grief at her loss brought on total 
blindness and alienation of mind. He lived nine 
years longer, but never recovered his reason, except 
for a few very short intervals. During one of these 
he heard a bell toll, and asked for whom it was. On 
being told it was for the wife of a tradesman in 
Windsor, " I remember her, " he said ; " she was a 
good woman, and brought up her family in the fear 
of God. She is gone to heaven, and I hope I shall 
soon follow her." Musical instruments were placed 
in his apartments, on which he was sometimes heard 
to play hymns and sacred airs ; and his attendants 
often overheard him praying for himself, his family, 
and the nation. At other times he imagined himself 
to be already dead and conversing with heavenly 
companions. Though blind, he was not helpless or 
inactive, but the powers of life were slowly wearing 
out, and death came at last, a gentle and welcome 
visitor. 

He breathed his last on the 29th of January, 1820, 
being then eighty-one years of age ; he had reigned 
nearly sixty years. Queen Charlotte died two years 
before her husband. His fourth son, Edward, Duke 
of Kent, had died six days before him, leaving an 
only child, who became Queen Victoria. 

During the long reign of George the Third, Great 
Britain had lost her oldest colonies in America, but 
she had gained great accessions of territory in other 
quarters of the world — Ceylon, large possessions in 
India, the island of Mauritius, and the colony of the 
Cape of Good Hope. Australia also was first settled 
in this reign. 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 309 



CHAPTER LXXXII 

George Prince Regent — His Marriage — Death of the Princess 
Charlotte — War with America, from 1812 to 181 5 — Bom- 
bardment of Algiers, 1S16 — George IV King, 1S20 — 
Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 1828; and Re- 
moval of the Roman Catholic Disabilities, 1829 — Death 
of George IV, June, 1830 

After George the Third became insane, his eldest 
son, George, Prince of Wales, was appointed regent 
of the kingdom. The prince was at that time forty- 
seven years of age. He possessed fine abilities and 
had remarkably polished manners, but from youth 
upward he had made it his chief care to amuse and 
enjoy himself. He had surrounded himself with dis- 
sipated companions, and had incurred such extrav- 
agant expenses that at thirty-two years of age his 
debts already amounted to more than half a million 
pounds. The king, whom these excesses greatly 
grieved, had tried in vain to induce him to change 
his way of life. His debts were paid for him, and 
he was persuaded to marry ; but the wife chosen for 
him, Caroline of Brunswick, was by no means a suit- 
able person. The marriage proved a wretched one, 
and after the birth of the Princess Charlotte, their 
only child, the prince and his wife separated. 

Their daughter grew up a most sensible, high- 
principled woman, and her manners and appearance 
were so engaging that every one loved her and was 
pleased to think of her being queen some day. In 
18 1 6 she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 
and in the following year, to the deep grief of the 
whole nation, she died at the age of twenty-one. 



3IO MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

Besides the long wars of which we have been read- 
ing in the reign of George the Third, there were two 
short wars during the regency of the Prince of Wales. 
In 1812 the United States of America complained 
that their trade was injured by some of the measures 
of the British government, and they had also some 
other grievances. A war began which lasted till 
18 1 5. Not much mischief was done to either nation, 
and, in comparison with the great war which Eng- 
land was obliged to wage in Europe, this war with 
America, in which no large fleets or armies were 
employed, seemed a very small matter. But it is 
always a most unhappy thing to be fighting against 
men of our own race and language, and the people of 
both countries were glad when peace was concluded. 

In 1 81 6 England sent a fleet, commanded by Ad- 
miral Lord Exmouth, to Algiers to chastise the Dey 
(the Moorish prince who then governed that country), 
and compel him to set free the Christians whom he 
was keeping in custody. It had long been the cus- 
tom of the Algerines and other Barbary pirates to 
capture the trading vessels of Christian states and 
reduce the crews to slavery. The English fleet sus- 
tained a tremendous fire from the batteries of the 
Algerines, but they returned it by a bombardment 
which laid the fortifications and shipping of the town 
in ruins. At the end of twenty-four hours the Dey 
gave way, and the Christian captives were set free. 

George the Fourth was crowned with extraordinary 
splendor eighteen months after his accession to the 
throne. He afterward visited Ireland, where there 
was a great deal of discontent. He remained a 
month in the island, greatly to the satisfaction of 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 3II 

the people ; but the disaffection broke out again al- 
most as soon as he left it. He next went to Han- 
over, to receive the crown of that kingdom ; and in 
the following year to Scotland, which had not been 
visited by any English sovereign since Charles the 
Second spent so miserable a year among the Cove- 
nanters. He received a loyal welcome everywhere. 

The most remarkable event of George the Fourth's 
reign was the repeal, in 1828 and 1829, of all the 
statutes which had been enacted in the reign of 
Charles the Second for the purpose of keeping 
Catholics and Protestant dissenters out of Parlia- 
ment and government offices. Stirred up by Daniel 
O'Connell and his followers, the Irish Roman Cath- 
olics had almost proceeded to open insurrection. It 
was hoped that when there was no longer any law 
preventing them from sending their own friends to 
Parliament they would cease to disturb the king- 
dom ; but this hope was disappointed, and Ireland 
continued during several years in a very unquiet 
state. 

George the Fourth died on the 26th of June, 1830. 
During the twenty years that he had presided over 
the kingdom, first as regent and afterward as king, 
great improvements had taken place in London. 
Regent Street was built, and the Regent's Park 
formed on ground which had hitherto been covered 
by shabby streets and pasture fields. Gas-lights 
began to be generally used, instead of the dim oil- 
lamps which had lighted the streets before. 

During the same period navigation by steam had 
been introduced ; the first steamboat was launched 
on the Clyde in 181 2. There was not yet any steam 



312 Merrill's English history 

travelling by land ; but the roads of Great Britain 
had been so much improved that they far surpassed 
those of any other country. 

But all these feats in road-making have been 
rivalled or surpassed in later days by the railroads. 

Owing to the use of the steam-engine and the 
great improvements in machinery, an immense in- 
crease had taken place in the quantity of iron, tin, 
and copper produced from mines ; and the size and 
population of towns engaged in the manufactures of 
metals had increased in a like proportion. In South 
Wales, especially, there were now great iron- works 
and a very large and busy population, where, at the 
beginning of George the Third's reign, there had 
been but a few little towns and villages. 



CHAPTER LXXXIII 

William IV, 1830 — Reform Bill Passed, 1832 — Abolition of 
Slavery, August ist, 1834 — Death of William IV, June 
20th, 1837 — Accession and Marriage of Queen Victoria — 
Wars in India — Death of Wellington, September, 1852 — 
War with Russia, 1854 — Sepoy Mutiny, 1857 — Death of 
Prince Albert, 1 861— The Civil War in the United States 
and the Alabama Damages, 1861-1871 — African Wars — 
Reform Bills of 1867 and 1886 — Education Act, 1870 — 
Irish Land Acts, 1870 and 1881 — Queen Victoria's Ju- 
bilee, 1887 

(From 1830 to 1892) 

William Henry, Duke of Clarence, succeeded his 
brother by the title of William the Fourth. He had 
been sent into the navy as a midshipman at thirteen 
years of age, and he retained through life a pleas- 
ant, sailor-like frankness of behavior. Both he and 
his wife, the good Queen Adelaide, were much be- 
loved. He reigned seven years. During that time 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 313 

a change was made in regard to the election of mem- 
bers of Parliament. 

Many of the places which were once towns and 
had sent members to the House of Commons during 
several hundred years had ceased to be of any im- 
portance, and some had no inhabitants. Old Sarum, 
for instance, once a city, had come to be only two or 
three fields and a clump of trees ; but it was still 
called a borottgh^ and whenever there was a new Par- 
liament two members for Old Sarum were chosen 
beneath these trees. At the same time some great 
towns like Manchester and Birmingham, which had 
grown to be large and important in modern times, 
sent no members to Parliament. These things were 
amended by the " Reform Bill;" the right to send 
members was taken away from the little, unimpor- 
tant places, and given to the large towns. There 
were also other changes which gave many more per- 
sons than before the privilege of voting at elections. 

Another event of William the Fourth's reign was 
the appearance for the first time of that terrible dis- 
ease, the Asiatic cholera. It had been known in 
India since the year 1817, but did not reach Europe 
till several years afterward. It was first seen in 
England at Sunderland, in October, 1831, and in the 
next year spread over most of the kingdom. 

In the reign of George the Third, Mr. Wilberforce 
and other benevolent men had labored hard to get 
the slave-trade abolished. It had at last been put 
down by act of Parliament in 1807. In the reign 
of William the Fourth, in the year 1834, slavery it- 
self was abolished in every part of the British pos- 
sessions ; but twenty millions of pounds were given 



314 MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 

to the planters in the West Indies, to make tip for 
any loss they might sustain by the emancipation of 
their slaves. 

Railway travelling was introduced during the 
reign of this king; the first railroad, from Liverpool 
to Manchester, was opened in September, 1830, and 
several others were soon constructed. 

On the 20th of June, 1837, King William the 
Fourth died, in the seventy-second year of his age. 
He was succeeded by his niece, Alexandrina Vic- 
toria, the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent. 

Hanover was now separated from the crown of 
England; for the laws of that country do not permit 
it to be ruled by a female sovereign. The queen's 
uncle, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, be- 
came King of Hanover. 

In the third year of her reign. Queen Victoria 
married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 
(February loth, 1840). In the following year a griev- 
ous disaster befel the British forces in Afghanistan. 
A body of troops had been stationed at Cabul to up- 
hold an Afghan prince called Shah Soojah ; but the 
inhabitants rose up against them, and treacherously 
murdered the English envoy and other officers. The 
troops were obliged to retreat in the beginning 
of January, 1842. Their way lay through a rocky, 
mountainous country, where they were exposed to 
dreadful sufferings. One man only, a medical officer 
named Brydon, escaped to tell the miseries which 
had fallen upon himself and his companions. A few 
of them had been made prisoners, the rest had per 
ished by hunger, intense cold, and the sword of the 
Afghans. In the following autumn these disasters 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 315 

were avenged ; the British forces gained several vic- 
tories over the Afghans and reduced their power. 

In 1846 three great victories were gained over an- 
other warlike nation — the Sikhs, who inhabit Lahore. 
They were forced to ask for peace, but rose again in 
1848, and began a second war, w^hich ended in the 
victory of Goojerat and the capture of the city of 
Mooltan by the English. The whole of the Punjab 
(or the country of the five rivers) to the northwest of 
Hindostan has since been annexed to the British 
dominions. 

In 1 85 1, when England was at peace with all the 
world and. all the states of Europe were in quiet- 
ness, a great Peace Festival, the " Exhibition of In- 
dustry of all Nations," was held in London. 

In the following year the Duke of Wellington 
died, September 14th, 1852, at the age of eighty- 
three. Since the peace of 18 15 he had been more 
than once prime minister. " A brave soldier, a mod- 
est hero, a sincere friend to the laws and liberties of 
his country, a respectful and faithful subject, he had 
won, without seeking it, the title of first citizen" of 
the British empire. Like most brave men, he was 
very fond of the young. He was buried, like Nel- 
son, with all the honor that a grateful nation could 
bestow, and lies beside him in the crypt of St. 
Paul's Cathedral. 

In little more than a year after his death the long 
peace won by his victories was broken, and England 
was once more at war ; but not against the French 
this time. They were allies of England in protect- 
ing Turkey against the encroachments of Rus- 
sia. War with Russia was declared March 28th, 



3i6 Merrill's English history 

1854. Early in the following- September the allied 
troops landed in the Crimea, fought the battle of the 
Alma on the 20th, and invested Sebastopol. The 
battle of Balaclava followed on the 26th of October, 
and that of Inkermann ten days afterward ; and in 
all these the Allies were victorious, but at a heavy 
loss of life. The destruction of life was far greater 
during the winter months, when the English troops 
were grievously destitute of necessary comforts ; and 
thousands perished for want of shelter, food, and 
clothing. The patient fortitude with which they en- 
dured extreme misery was as admirable as their 
ardor in the fight. The city, so dearly purchased, 
fell at last, September 8th, 1855; and the fall of 
Sebastopol was followed by peace with Russia. 

In this war England had for the first time the 
benefit of that wonderful invention, the electric 
telegraph, bringing the news of disaster or success 
so much more quickly than could have been done 
by any other means. 

In 1857 a fearful mutiny broke out among the 
Sepoys in India. A new rifle had been adopted for 
the army, requiring the use of greased cartridges, 
the end of which had to be bitten off by the soldier 
before loading. To the Hindus the fat of cattle or 
swine is forbidden by their religion, and the Sepoys 
revolted when they were forced to use these car- 
tridges. At Delhi, Lucknow, Cawnpore, and other 
places, they rose against the English and committed 
acts of atrocity too dreadful to be described here. It 
was only after two years of hard fighting that the in- 
surrection was put down. The crimes of which the 
rebels had been guilty were thought to deserve a 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 317 

punishment so terrible that it would never be forgot- 
ten. The Sepoys who were proved to have taken an 
active part in the outrages were condemned to be 
bound to the mouths of cannon and blown to pieces. 
. The East India Company was now dissolved, and 
the government of the country was transferred to the 
crown. This was in 1858, and in 1877 Queen Vic- 
toria received the title of Empress of India. 

In 1 86 1 Prince Albert died, lamented by the entire 
nation. He had done much to promote education, 
industry, and art ; and he had shown himself a true 
friend to the United States when the war between 
the North and the South began, just before his death. 

During this war a number of cruisers w^ere built 
and fitted out in England, which were used by the 
Confederates to prey upon the commerce of the 
North. The most noted of these was the Alabama^ a 
very fast steamer, which destroyed many merchant 
vessels before she was herself destroyed by the 
United States gunboat Kea7'sarge, After the war 
the American government demanded damages from 
Great Britain for the mischief done by the Alabama 
and the other cruisers of English build. The mat- 
ter was left by treaty to arbiters, who met at Geneva, 
in Switzerland, and who decided that $15,500,000 
should be paid to the United States by Great Britain. 

In 1882 a rebellion occurred in Egypt, which had 
been for some years partly under British control. 
The insurgents, commanded by an officer named 
Arabi, attacked the Europeans living in Alexandria, 
killed several hundred of them, and seized the forti- 
fications of the city. A British fleet bombarded 
these, and compelled Arabi and his forces to flee. 



3i8 Merrill's English history 

They were afterward completely routed in the battle 
of Tel el Kebir by Sir Garnet Wolseley. 

In 1883 there was another rebellion in Egypt, 
stirred up in the Soudan by the Mahdi, or " Re- 
deemer," of the Mahometans. General Hicks was 
sent against him with some Egyptian troops, who 
were defeated and slain, with their commander. 
Another army, under General Gordon, was hardly 
more successful. He was assassinated, and his forces 
were called back in 1885. 

Other small wars in Africa were those against 
Abyssinia in 1868, on account of the ill-treatment of 
English residents; against the Ashantees in 1872; 
with the Boers of the Transvaal Republic in South 
Africa in 1877, in which the British were defeated 
and compelled to retreat from the country ; and in 
1879 with the Zulus, who had nearly destroyed a 
British force and were themselves utterly routed in 
return, their king Cetewayo being captured. In 
this war the Prince Imperial, son of Napoleon III., 
was killed. 

It has been stated that in 1832 a Reform Bill was 
passed by Parliament which gave the right of vot- 
ing to many persons who did not have it before. In 
1867, by a second Reform Bill, the number of voters 
was greatly increased ; and in 1886 another law added 
about two and a half millions more to the list. 

In 1870 the Education Act was passed, by which 
common schools were established throughout the 
kingdom. Before this time more than half the chil- 
dren in the country never went to school, and large 
numbers of people, especially in the rural districts, 
could not read nor write. By the new law all chil- 



MERRILL S ENGLISH HISTORY 319 

dren are required to attend school; and though a 
fee is charged for instruction, it is so small that even 
the poorest can pay it. 

In 1870, and again in 1881, laws were made which 
were intended to relieve the distress in Ireland caused 
by high rents and the severity of landlords toward 
the poor peasants who could not pay them. These 
measures have not improved the condition of this 
unhappy country so much as it was hoped they would. 
The " Irish Question " still remains a hard one to 
settle. 

In 1887 the "Jubilee" of Queen Victoria— the fif- 
tieth anniversary of her coronation — was celebrated 
with general rejoicing. She has now (1892) held the 
throne longer than any other English sovereign ex- 
cept Henry the Third and George the Third; and 
her reign has been, on the whole, very fortunate and 
prosperous. 

During the nineteenth century England has pro- 
duced a multitude of men who have distinguished 
themselves in science or in literature, and who have 
largely added to the sum of human knowledge; and 
in the latter part of this period, as we have seen, 
great pains have been taken to promote the educa- 
tion of the people by an improved school system. 



320 MERRILL S r>NGLISH HISTORY 



KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND. 

The following verses have often been found useful in fix- 
ing the order of the English sovereigns in the memory, and we 
append them for the benefit of young readers and students : 

First William the Norman, then William his son; 

Henry, Stephen, and Henry, then Richard and John. 

Next Henry the Third, Edwards one, two, and three ; 

And again, after Richard, three Henrys we see. 

Two Edwards, third Richard, if rightly I guess ; 

Two Henrys, sixth Edward, Queen Mary, Queen Bess. 

Then Jamie the Scotchman, then Charles whom they slew 

Yet received after Cromwell another Charles too. 

Next James called the Second ascended the -throne; 

Then William and Mary together came on. 

When Anne, Georges four, and fourth William had passed 

God sent Queen Victoria ; may she long be the last ! 



1 



THE world! 

Britisli Possesaious are colored Re il. 




